In Beijing, the Foreign Ministry says North Korea's parliamentary head, Kim Yong-Nam, will visit China next week.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said Tuesday that the North's No. 2 leader will arrive in Beijing on Monday for a three-day visit.
However, the spokeswoman stopped short of mentioning whether Kim and Chinese officials would discuss six-nation talks on the North's nuclear arms program.
Zhang only said that the head of the Presidium of North Korea's parliament would make a "goodwill visit" as part of celebrations of the 55th anniversary of Chinese-North Korean diplomatic relations.
The visit comes as China is working to arrange a new round of six-way nuclear talks.
China's chief diplomat on the Korean nuclear issue, Ning Fukui, will arrive in Seoul on Wednesday before moving on to the United States and Japan later in the same trip.