A top Chinese official reportedly made a surprise visit to North Korea's embassy in Beijing on Thursday to attend a reception marking the upcoming 70th anniversary of the founding of the North Korean state. 

According to a source in Beijing, Wang Yang, considered number four in China's power hierarchy and a member of the Chinese Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee, was the highest-ranking Chinese official to ever attend such an event at the North Korean embassy. 

Yang's attendance contrasts sharply to last year when China sent then assistant foreign minister Kong Xuanyou to the event amid strained bilateral relations over the North's nuclear and missile tests.  

China plans to send a similarly high-ranking official, Li Zhanshu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, to Pyongyang this week to attend the 70th anniversary celebration of the founding of North Korea.

[Photo : YONHAP News]