中国将派遣特使出访朝鲜

China is sending a special envoy to North Korea later this week.

The official Xinhua news agency says Song Tao, the head of China's Communist Party's external affairs department, will leave for North Korea on Friday to discuss China's recently concluded national congress with North Korean officials. The report gave no further details about Song's upcoming trip to Pyongyang.

China is North Korea's largest trading partner and closest diplomatic ally, but relations between the two have become frayed recently. Beijing is upset with Pyongyang over the regime's continued tests of its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, in defiance of numerous international sanctions, and has backed a series of new United Nations sanctions imposed on the North.

U.S. President Donald Trump urged China and other regional leaders to increase their efforts to resolve the crisis on the Korean peninsula during his just-concluded five-nation, 12-day trip to Asia.

But China fears that any measure that could topple North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's regime, could lead to a flood of refugees across its border with the North, and deprive Beijing of a strategic buffer with democratic South Korea.中国本周晚些时候将派遣一名特使出访朝鲜。

中国官方的新华社说，中共中央对外联络部部长宋涛星期五将访问朝鲜，与朝鲜官员讨论最近结束的共产党全国代表大会。报道没有提宋涛出访朝鲜的其它细节。

中国是朝鲜最大的贸易伙伴和最紧密的外交盟友，但是两国之间的关系最近出现问题。北京对平壤无视国际社会的几轮制裁，继续试射核武器和弹道导弹感到不满。中国对最近一系列制裁朝鲜的联合国决议都表示支持。

美国总统川普在他刚刚结束的12天亚洲五国行期间敦促中国和其他区域领导人为解决朝鲜半岛危机做出更大努力。

中国担心任何可能导致朝鲜领导人金正恩倒台的措施会引发大批难民从朝鲜越境进入中国，而且北京也会失去和实行民主制度的韩国之间的缓冲。