(LEAD) N. Korea's Kim will travel to China to attend Sept. 3 military parade

▲ North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (R) shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during their summit meeting in Pyongyang on June 20, 2019, in this file photo published by the Korean Central News Agency. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

(LEAD) NK leader-China

(LEAD) N. Korea's Kim will travel to China to attend Sept. 3 military parade

(ATTN: UPDATES with more details throughout)

By Park Boram

SEOUL, Aug. 28 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will soon travel to China to attend the country's 80th anniversary marking the end of World War II at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, the North's state media and Chinese officials said Thursday.

China will hold a military parade on Sept. 3 to mark the anniversary of what it describes as victory in the struggle against Japan in 1945, when Japan was defeated in World War II.

Kim "will soon visit the People's Republic of China at the invitation of Xi Jinping ... to participate in celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War," the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

Concurrently, Hong Lei, China's assistant minister of foreign affairs, announced that Kim will attend the Sept. 3 military parade marking the anniversary, listing him among state leaders from 26 foreign countries scheduled to attend at Xi's invitation.

The guests include Russian President Vladimir Putin and South Korea's Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik, as well as leaders from Vietnam, Indonesia and Iran, according to Chinese reports.

Kim's rare trip comes as North Korea and China show signs of restoring bilateral ties, fractured by Pyongyang's close alignment with Russia, following the deployment of North Korean troops to support Moscow's war with Ukraine.

Since taking power in 2011, Kim has visited China four times so far, first in 2018 and most recently in 2019 and during all of these visits, he held meetings with Xi.

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