Top officials to brief counterparts on Korean Peninsula nuclear issue

President Xi Jinping's special representative Yang Jiechi will visit the Republic of Korea on Thursday and Friday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang announced on Wednesday.

It is the first time for Yang, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, to travel abroad in the capacity of director of the general office of the newly established Central Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Yang's trip was also confirmed by Seoul on Wednesday. It follows closely on the heels of a visit to China by Kim Jong-un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Yang is scheduled to meet with ROK President Moon Jae-in, as well as with the head of the ROK presidential national security office, Chung Eui-yong, and ROK Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha.

The trip to Seoul will include an exchange of views on advancing China-ROK efforts to properly deal with the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, Lu told reporters at a daily news conference in Beijing.

The ROK's senior presidential press secretary, Yoon Young-chan, said that Yang is expected to brief leaders in detail on the Xi-Kim talks, Seoul-based Yonhap news agency reported.

Chung Eui-yong, the top national security adviser for the ROK president, visited the DPRK and the United States before going to Beijing earlier this month as a special envoy of Moon Jae-in to share information from those trips.

In another development, Beijing and Moscow said they will postpone a planned working visit to Russia by State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, according to Lu Kang, the Chinese spokesman. Previously, the two sides had agreed that Wang would travel to Russia as Xi's special envoy on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Kemerovo early on Tuesday, following Sunday's tragic deaths in a major fire, The Associated Press reported.

Wang's trip was postponed because of changes in the Russian leaders' schedule, Lu said.

When asked if Wang's Russia trip, when it happens, will include discussions of Kim's China trip, Lu said various parties would certainly be briefed.

Zhang Liangui, a Korea expert at the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, said the trips of Yang and Wang show that China is a major, influential participant in the Korean nuclear issue.

The trips to convey the results of the Xi-Kim talks illustrate the proactive side of China's diplomacy and the country's important role, Zhang said.