中國將派遣特使出訪朝鮮

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.中國本週晚些時候將派遣一名特使出訪朝鮮。

中國官方的新華社說，中共中央對外聯絡部部長宋濤星期五將訪問朝鮮，與朝鮮官員討論最近結束的共產黨全國代表大會。報道沒有提宋濤出訪朝鮮的其它細節。

中國是朝鮮最大的貿易伙伴和最緊密的外交盟友，但是兩國之間的關係最近出現問題。北京對平壤無視國際社會的幾輪制裁，繼續試射核武器和彈道導彈感到不滿。中國對最近一系列制裁朝鮮的聯合國決議都表示支持。

美國總統川普在他剛剛結束的12天亞洲五國行期間敦促中國和其他區域領導人爲解決朝鮮半島危機做出更大努力。

中國擔心任何可能導致朝鮮領導人金正恩倒臺的措施會引發大批難民從朝鮮越境進入中國，而且北京也會失去和實行民主制度的韓國之間的緩衝。