BEIJING: China’s President Xi Jinping is leaving for  North Korea to hold a meeting with Kim Jong-un, in the first Chinese state visit to the North since 2005.

The two, who have met in China four times, are expected to discuss the stalled talks over the North’s nuclear program as well as economic issues.

China is hugely important to North Korea, as its main trading partner.

Mr Xi’s visit comes a week before the G20 summit in Japan, where he is set to meet US President Donald Trump.

It will also be his first meeting with Mr Kim since the Trump-Kim meeting in Hanoi in February ended without any agreement on North Korean demilitarization.