Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will sign several agreements with North Korean leaders during a visit to Pyongyang next week.
WenJiabao is making a trip to North Korea next week to celebrate the 60thanniversary of the establishment of relations between the two neighbors.
ForeignMinistry spokeswoman Jiang Yu says Premier Wen's visit will reciprocatea visit to China in March by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
Jiangsays during this visit, China will review its relations with NorthKorea and "map out the development plan for the futureof bilateral relations."
She says the visit, which begins Sunday and ends Tuesday, will have concrete results, but gave no details.
The spokeswoman says the two sides will sign a series of cooperation agreements, dealing with trade, tourism and education.
She said China has been helping North Korea "within its capacity."
China is North Korea's biggest international ally and one of Pyongyang's largest aid providers.
Jiangdid not directly say if Mr. Wen would raise the issue of the six-partytalks on the North Korean nuclear programs. She called the stalledtalks an "effective and practical mechanism". She repeated the Chinesegovernment's position that it would like to see an end to the programsbrought about through negotiation.
Mr. Wen's visit comes afterrecent signs that North Korea is softening its stance and may bewilling to return to the six-party talks. Earlier this year, NorthKorea declared the talks dead. Pyongyang tested a nuclear explosivedevice and also launched a long-range missile, both in defiance ofUnited Nations resolutions.
But in the past few months,Pyongyang has made several conciliatory gestures. Among them, it freedtwo American journalists arrested for entering North Korea illegallyand has cooperated with South Korea on reuniting families separatedsince the Korean War in the 1950s.
