A Chinese art troupe led by a senior Chinese Communist Party official arrived in North Korea on Friday in a sign of further improving ties between the neighboring countries.
Kim Yo Jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's sister and close aide who serves as the first vice department director of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party, greeted the delegation at Pyongyang International Airport.
(Kim Yo Jong and Song Tao)
Song Tao, head of the International Liaison Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is leading the art troupe, which is scheduled to participate in the April Spring Friendship Art Festival.
The festival is a biennial event held to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of North Korea's founder Kim Il Sung, which this year falls on Sunday.
Kim Jong Un and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to promote bilateral cultural exchanges during their first-ever summit in Beijing in late March.
Last November, Song visited North Korea as Xi's special envoy, but neither country's state-run media reported on Song meeting Kim, suggesting such a meeting did not happen. Song, however, greeted Kim when he arrived in the Chinese border city of Dandong last month on his way to Beijing.