Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met a senior North Korean official Kim Song-nam, in Beijing on Thursday. He said China wants to improve its relations with North Korea. Kim Song-nam is senior politician and also serves as a member of the Political Bureau of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party and a secretary of its Central Committee. He also leads the party’s international department, which handles national relations with China. The news of the talks was shared by Chinese Communist Party in a post on its official WeChat account.

Kim’s delegation arrived in Beijing on Tuesday. According to SBS News, China had not announced the visit before this meeting. Wang said Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed several key agreements during Xi’s visit to Pyongyang in June. He added that China would fully implement those agreements and expressed hope for stronger and more positive relations between the two countries.

Wang also briefed Kim’s team on the results of China’s recent party meeting, known as the fifth plenum. He said Beijing is ready to strengthen exchanges on party building and governance, and the Chinese statement says Pyongyang is open to that. Kim Song-nam called Xi’s June trip a “new milestone” for the two countries. He also pointed to Kim Jong Un’s recent trip to the Chinese border city of Dandong. He said it showed the strategic nature of what he called their “blood-cemented friendship.”

Kim Song-nam said North Korea is willing to work with China to keep building friendly relations. He is widely seen as Pyongyang’s top China expert. He visited China in 2024 and 2025 and went with Kim Jong Un on his latest trip. Other exchanges are also happening. A group from China’s Central Party School visited North Korea, and a group from North Korea’s state news agency KCNA visited Beijing this week.

Relations between China and North Korea had seemed to weaken as North Korea got closer to Russia over the war in Ukraine. Since then, both countries have exchanged several visits by senior officials. Xi’s visit to Pyongyang in June was his first trip to North Korea in seven years.

Kim Jong Un visited Dandong on October 24. He crossed the New Yalu River Bridge, which connects North Korea with China. The AP said it was his sixth trip to China since taking power in 2011. In Dandong, he met senior Chinese officials including Wang Yi and visited a Korean War memorial and a car factory. Xinhua said China wants to use the bridge to expand trade.

The talks also come as people wonder whether US President Donald Trump will meet Kim Jong Un during his Asia trip. Trump plans to attend the APEC summit in Shenzhen, China, on November 18 and 19. On October 12, he said he may meet Kim. No official meeting is scheduled yet. South Korea’s ambassador to Washington said there had been no clear progress toward arranging a meeting.

North Korea is not an APEC member, so the Both leaders are expected to meet away from the summit venue. For now, both sides say they want to keep strengthening their relations.