China's Xi Jinping to make rare visit to North Korea

China's leader Xi Jinping is visiting long-standing ally North Korea for the first time in nearly seven years, state media report.

Xi will be in North Korea from 8-9 June at the invitation of his counterpart Kim Jong Un. Xi last visited Pyongyang in 2019.

The visit comes weeks after Xi received US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing - two countries that loom large over Pyongyang's foreign policy.

China is a key economic and political partner of North Korea, which faces sweeping international sanctions as a result of its nuclear weapons programme and alleged human rights violations.

Pyongyang views the US as its main political enemy, and Russia as a growing friend to whom Kim has pledged unwavering support.

Xi is wary of the burgeoning alliance between Kim and Putin, despite Beijing's close ties with both Pyongyang and Moscow.

China and North Korea share a 1,400km-long border and are bound by a defence pact - the only one China has with any country. It guarantees mutual support if either is attacked.

This year marks the 65th anniversary of that treaty.

Beijing has also long served as the main mediator between Kim's pariah regime and the rest of the world.

As Pyongyang adopts an increasingly hostile policy towards Seoul - including recently revising its constitution to remove references to reunification - South Korean President Lee Jae Myung asked Xi to help mediate inter-Korean relations.

To that request, Xi replied that "patience is needed", Lee later told reporters.

While Beijing is a long-standing promoter of denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, echoing international calls for North Korea's disarmament, it has significantly toned down this position in recent years.

During the Trump-Xi meeting last month, the two leaders reaffirmed the shared goal of denuclearising North Korea, according to a White House fact sheet of the meeting.

But when asked about this at a press briefing, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson did not directly confirm the agreement, instead saying China's position on the issue has maintained "continuity and consistency".

Pyongyang, for its part, has made it clear that it will not steer away from its nuclear ambitions.

Just this week, Kim said North Korea's "weapons-grade nuclear materials production capacity more than doubled" in the past five years, as he toured a new nuclear facility, state media reported.