BEIJING — China’s Premier Li Qiang will visit North Korea this week in the highest-level Chinese visit to Pyongyang since 2019, underscoring deepening ties between the two communist neighbors amid shifting regional alliances.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday that Li will lead a government delegation from Thursday to Saturday to attend events marking the 80th anniversary of the founding of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party.

Beijing described China and North Korea as “traditional friends and neighbors,” adding that it remains “an unswerving strategic policy” of the Chinese government and the Communist Party “to maintain, consolidate, and develop” relations with Pyongyang.

Li, who serves as China’s premier and is ranked second in the Communist Party hierarchy after President Xi Jinping, will represent Beijing at a time when Xi has scaled back his international travel. Xi last visited North Korea in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said Russia will send former President Dmitri Medvedev to the celebrations, while Vietnam and Laos will also dispatch top leaders, signaling strong support among Pyongyang’s remaining socialist allies.

Vietnam’s Communist Party chief To Lam, making the first visit by a Vietnamese leader to North Korea since 2007, and Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith, who also serves as general secretary of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, are expected to attend the commemorations.

The renewed diplomatic activity comes as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un strengthens cooperation with both China and Russia.

Kim has expanded military and economic ties with Moscow — including sending troops to assist Russia’s war in Ukraine — while maintaining a steady exchange of high-level visits with Beijing.

In April, Zhao Leji, another member of China’s Politburo Standing Committee, met Kim in Pyongyang, and Kim returned the gesture last month by attending a military parade in Beijing alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Li’s upcoming visit signals China’s continued intent to maintain its influence on the Korean Peninsula amid deepening strategic coordination among Beijing, Moscow, and Pyongyang. — Agencies