Yang Jiechi, a senior Chinese government official, will visit Busan this week to discuss issues, including Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to South Korea.

According to Cheong Wa Dae, Yang -- a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China -- will visit Busan on a two-day trip from Friday on invitation from Suh Hoon, chief of the presidential national security office.

This is Yang’s first visit to Korea since July 2018, and his first meeting with Suh after Suh was appointed to the current post last month, before which he headed the National Intelligence Service.

Suh and Yang will meet on Saturday and discuss a range of bilateral issues, Cheong Wa Dae said.

“Suh and Yang will held a conference in the morning of 22nd, and luncheon and exchange views on matters of mutual interests including cooperation on COVID-19 response, high-level exchange and bilateral relations, and international and Korean Peninsula issues,” Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kang Min-seok said.

The matter of Xi’s visit to Korea is also likely to be on the agenda. Seoul and Beijing had initially planned to arrange the visit in the first half of the year, but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a top Cheong Wa Dae official, the two sides are working on arranging the visit at an “appropriate time.”

The choice of Busan as the venue came in consideration of Yang’s itinerary and request and has “nothing to do with the recent spread of coronavirus,” he added.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)