BEIJING, China: Chinese Premier Li Qiang will travel to North Korea this week, marking the highest-level visit by a Chinese leader since 2019, Beijing announced on October 7.

Li will lead a government delegation from October 9 to 11 to attend events commemorating the 80th anniversary of the founding of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, according to China's Foreign Ministry.

China described the two nations as "traditional friends and neighbors," reaffirming that it remains an "unswerving strategic policy" of both the Chinese government and the ruling Communist Party to strengthen relations with Pyongyang.

Beijing has long been North Korea's key ally and economic lifeline, though leader Kim Jong Un has increasingly sought to diversify ties, particularly with Russia. North Korea has openly supported Moscow's war in Ukraine, reportedly sending troops to assist Russian forces.

Moscow is dispatching former President Dmitri Medvedev to this week's anniversary celebrations, North Korea's KCNA news agency reported this week.

Li, a member of the seven-person Politburo Standing Committee, is China's No. 2 leader after President Xi Jinping. He has taken on a more prominent diplomatic role in recent months as the 72-year-old Xi scales back his international travel. Xi last visited North Korea in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

North Korea's anniversary events will also draw other regional allies. Vietnamese leader To Lam, the Communist Party's general secretary, will make his first visit to North Korea since 2007, Vietnam's government said this week. Laotian President Thongloun Sisoulith, who also heads the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, is expected to attend as well.

High-level exchanges between Beijing and Pyongyang have intensified over the past year. In April, Politburo Standing Committee member Zhao Leji visited Pyongyang and met with Kim Jong Un. Last month, Kim traveled to Beijing, where he appeared alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin during a Chinese military parade — underscoring the emerging alignment among China, Russia, and North Korea amid growing friction with the West.