Beijing, June 20 (IANS) Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday embarked on his first-ever state visit to North Korea, where he will meet Pyongyang leader Kim Jong-un and discuss various bilateral issues.

Xi is paying the visit at the invitation of Kim, Xinhua news agency.

The two-day visit by Xi will be a first by a Chinese President in the last 14 years and the first since he came to power in 2013.

It follows Kim's four visits to China in the past year.

A day before the visit, Xi, in an op-ed published in an official North Korean newspaper on Wednesday, said his trip to Pyongyang will help achieve progress in the negotiations on the Korean Peninsula's denuclearization issue.

--IANS ksk