Xi Jinping to meet Kim Jong Un in rare visit to North Korea

China's president Xi Jinping will meet Kim Jong Un next week in a trip to North Korea, in his first visit in nearly seven years, according to both countries' state media.

Xi will be in North Korea from 8 to 9 June at Kim's invitation. 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.

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.

For Kim, the propaganda value of Xi's visit is self-evident. North Korea had improved its standing on the world stage after withstanding the pandemic and entering the war in Ukraine on the side of Russia.

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

But Beijing, Pyongyang's largest trading partner, remains the main lifeline for Kim.