Beijing, Aug 18: A high-level Chinese military delegation today left here for North Korea for talks ahead of the first six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme.
The delegation is led by General Xu Caihou, Director of the General Political Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, Xinhua news agency reported.

It said the official goodwill visit is taking place at the invitation of Jo Myongrok, First Deputy Chairman of the North Korean Defence Commission and Director-General of the Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army.
Xu is also a member of the Secretariat of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, a member of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the top military organ of China.
Xu's current trip is the reciprocal visit to Jo's visit to China in April, the report said.



China, North Korea's closest ally, will host multilateral talks on August 27-29 in a bid to defuse tensions over the North's suspected development of nuclear weapons.



Senior representatives of the US, China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas will meet for the talks in Beijing.


Bureau Report