North Korea’s ruling party turns 80 with foreign leaders in attendance

BEIJING (AP) — North Korea is celebrating Friday the 80th anniversary of the ruling party and different foreign dignitaries and leaders will be part of the commemoration.

The Workers’ Party celebrations will serve to show once again how North Korea is trying to shore up its relations with some key global players and allies, such as China and Russia, who are sending high-level representatives.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has had in China his most important ally, and in recent years he has also built ties with Russia, a country North Korea has helped by sending troops to participate in its war against Ukraine.

In September, Kim Jong Un stood next to Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of a visit to Beijing to attend a massive military parade marking the end of the World War II.

The plans of what will happen during the commemoration have not been revealed, but some foreign leaders have started arriving.

Here’s a view of some of the leaders and high-level representatives that are expected to attend:

Premier Li Qiang arrived Thursday in Pyongyang, North Korea's capital, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Li's presence is the highest-level visit by a Chinese leader since 2019. He is one of seven members of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party’s Politburo, the apex of power in China.

As premier, he is generally considered the No. 2 leader in China after President Xi Jinping. Li has been representing China on more foreign trips and high-level events recently, including the United Nations General Assembly in September.

Russia is sending Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president who serves as deputy head of the Security Council chaired by Putin, to this week’s anniversary celebrations, North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said Monday.

North Korea has been expanding cooperation with Russia, another neighbor to China. It has supplied combat troops and ammunitions to support Russia's war against Ukraine.

Communist Party General Secretary To Lam, Vietnam's top leader, also arrived Thursday in North Korea for the celebrations, Vietnamese state media reported.

As general secretary of the Communist Party in Vietnam, he holds the same leadership position held by Kim Jong Un in the North Korean Workers’ Party.

To Lam who was welcomed by Kim Jong Un in a ceremony in Pyongyang, reported the Vietnamese state media. The visit happens as both countries also celebrate the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations.

The president of Laos, Thongloun Sisoulith, will also attend, KCNA said last week. He is general secretary of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. front right, shakes hands with Vietnamese Defense Minister Phan Van Giang in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (Hoang Thong Nhat/VNA via AP)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, second left, and Vietnamese General Secretary of Communist Party To Lam, third left, review honor guards during a welcome ceremony for Lam's state visit in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (Hoang Thong Nhat/VNA via AP)

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman and the head of the United Russia party Dmitry Medvedev attends a wreath laying ceremony at the statues of former North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il on Mansu Hill in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (Ekaterina Shtukina, Sputnik Pool Photo via AP)

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman and the head of the United Russia party Dmitry Medvedev, center, leaves after laying flowers to the statues of former North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il on Mansu Hill in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (Ekaterina Shtukina, Sputnik Pool Photo via AP)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, and Vietnamese General Secretary of Communist Party To Lam shake hands in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (Hoang Thong Nhat/VNA via AP)

Vietnamese General Secretary of Communist Party To Lam, second right, is greeted by children upon his arrival in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025, for a state visit and to attend the 80th anniversary of the founding of North Korea's ruling Worker's Party of Korea. (Hoang Thong Nhat/VNA via AP)

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman and the head of the United Russia party Dmitry Medvedev, right, is greeted by North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Im Cheon Il upon his arrival in Pyongyang, North Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the founding of North Korea's ruling Worker's Party of Korea. (Ekaterina Shtukina, Sputnik, Pool Photo via AP)

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman and the head of the United Russia party Dmitry Medvedev, left, is greeted by North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Im Cheon Il upon his arrival in Pyongyang, North Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the founding of North Korea's ruling Worker's Party of Korea. (Ekaterina Shtukina, Sputnik, Pool Photo via AP)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian missile, drone and shelling attacks overnight and Sunday killed at least three people in Ukraine, after U.S. and Ukrainian officials wrapped up a third day of talks aimed at ending the war.

A man was killed in a drone attack on Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region Saturday night, local officials said, while a combined missile and drone attack on infrastructure in the central city of Kremenchuk caused power and water outages. Kremenchuk is home to one of Ukraine’s biggest oil refineries and is an industrial hub.

Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponizing” the cold.

Two people were killed and seven others wounded Sunday in shelling by Russian troops in Ukraine's Kharkiv region, according to the regional police.

The latest round of attacks came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday evening he had a “substantive phone call” with American officials engaged in talks with a Ukrainian delegation in Florida. He said he had been given an update over the phone by U.S. and Ukrainian officials at the talks.

“Ukraine is determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media.

Speaking Saturday at the Reagan National Defense Forum, U.S. President Donald Trump’s outgoing Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, said efforts to end the war were in “the last 10 meters.”

He said a deal depended on the two outstanding issues of “terrain, primarily the Donbas,” and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

Russia controls most of Donbas, its name for Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk, which, along with two southern regions, it illegally annexed three years ago. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is in an area that has been under Russian control since early in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and is not in service, but it needs reliable power to cool its six shutdown reactors and spent fuel, to avoid any catastrophic nuclear incidents.

Kellogg is due to leave his post in January and was not present at the talks in Florida.

Separately, officials said the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Germany would participate in a meeting with Zelenskyy in London on Monday.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov welcomed the Trump administration’s new national security strategy. In comments published Sunday by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, he said the strategy was “encouraging.”

“There are statements there against confrontation and in favor of dialogue and building good relations,” he said.

The document released Friday by the White House makes clear that the U.S. wants to improve its relationship with Russia after years of Moscow being treated as a global pariah and that ending the war is a core U.S. interest to “reestablish strategic stability with Russia.”

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, a soldier tests land drones in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)

In this photo, provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, a soldier tests land drones in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)