China’s Vice Foreign Minister and top nuclear envoy Kong Xuanyou has traveled to North Korea to discuss issues of mutual interest, including the North’s denuclearization. 

According to sources in Beijing and Japan's Kyodo News, Kong boarded an Air China flight heading to Pyongyang from Beijing Capital International Airport on Wednesday afternoon. 

Also serving as Special Representative of the Chinese Government for Korean Peninsula Affairs, Kong is known to be planning to brief Pyongyang on Beijing's stance regarding the nuclear disarmament negotiations between the U.S. and the North. 

He is also expected to hear Pyongyang's opinions on the possible easing of the U.N. sanctions on the North.