Chinese Premier Li Qiang will visit North Korea from October 9 to 11 to attend events marking the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

According to Beijing’s foreign ministry on Tuesday, Li — a member of the Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee and China’s second-in-command, after President Xi Jinping — will lead a senior party and government delegation to Pyongyang.

The visit follows a meeting late last month between North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, where the two are believed to have discussed China’s participation in the anniversary parade.

Li’s trip marks the highest-level Chinese attendance at a North Korean political event since 2015, when the standing committee’s Liu Yunshan represented Beijing at the 70th anniversary celebrations.

The visit underscores the growing strategic alignment between Pyongyang and Beijing amid rising tensions with Washington and Seoul.

Chinese state media described the trip as a “friendly visit,” emphasizing “traditional friendship and cooperation” between the two socialist neighbors.