Although the official Xinhua news agency did not give the names of those in the delegation, the encounter comes on the heels of a rare visit Tuesday by top North Korean politician Ri Su Yong, vice chairman of the country’s ruling Workers’ Party and former foreign minister.
China is North Korea’s largest trading partner and has been its key diplomatic protector for decades. But relations have soured following Pyongyang’s internationally-condemned nuclear tests, with Beijing supporting UN sanctions against the hermit kingdom.
UN resolutions ban North Korea from using any ballistic missile technology, although it regularly fires short-range missiles into the sea off its east coast. Ri Su Yong met Chinese official Song Tao on Tuesday, head of the international department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee, to brief him on the North’s once-in-a-generation party congress, according to the CCP.
The isolated nation held its first party congress for nearly 40 years in early May, formally endorsing leader Kim Jong-Un’s policy of expanding the country’s nuclear arsenal.