Photo/Illutration In this photo provided by the North Korean government, a huge North Korean flag is displayed during a celebration of the nation's 73rd anniversary at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea on Sept. 9, 2021. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

SEOUL--A Chinese delegation led by Vice-Premier Liu Guozhong will visit North Korea to participate in celebrations for its 75th founding anniversary, which is on Saturday, the North’s state media said Thursday.

The report came amid speculation that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is preparing to visit Russia soon for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that could be focused on advancing talks for North Korean arms sales to refill Russian reserves drained by its war on Ukraine.

Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said the visit by Liu’s delegation comes at the invitation of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party. It didn’t specify the events the Chinese officials would be participating or whether they would be meeting Kim.

A U.S. official said Monday that Washington expects Kim to make a trip to Russia within this month to meet Putin as the Kremlin tries to acquire military equipment for use in its war in Ukraine.

According to some U.S. reports, the meeting could happen as early as next week in the eastern Russian city of Vladivostok, where Putin is expected to attend an annual economic forum that runs from Sunday to Wednesday.

In exchange for providing Russian with artillery shells and other ammunition, North Korea could possibly seek badly needed energy and food aid and advanced weapons technologies, analysts say. There are concerns that potential Russian technology transfers would increase the threat posed by Kim’s growing arsenal of nuclear weapons and missiles that are designed to target the United States and its Asian allies South Korea and Japan.

Amid deepening nuclear tensions with Washington, Seoul and Tokyo, Kim has been trying to boost the visibility of his partnerships with Moscow and Beijing as he seeks to break out of diplomatic isolation and have Pyongyang be a part of a united front against the United States.

Kim in July invited delegations led by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chinese Communist Party Politburo member Li Hongzhong to a huge military parade in Pyongyang where he rolled out his most powerful weapons, including intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to target the U.S. mainland.

A day before the parade, Kim took Shoigu on a tour of a domestic arms exhibition, which demonstrated North Korea’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and added to suspicions the North was willing to supply arms to Russia.

Speaking at a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on Wednesday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol urged all U.N. member states to fulfill their sanctions obligations under existing Security Council resolutions to limit North Korea’s nuclear capabilities, which include a ban on arms trade with the country, his office said in a statement. The office did not elaborate whether Yoon specifically called out Russia while expressing those concerns.

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