SEOUL, May 21 (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping may visit North Korea as early as next week and will try to act as a mediator between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, quoting a senior government official.
Another government source was cited by Yonhap as saying a team of Chinese security service and protocol officials was in Pyongyang recently and that a visit by Xi late in May or early June was likely.
Xi, who hosted Trump last week, will try to act as a mediator between Trump and North Korea's Kim, the senior official was quoted as saying in the report released late on Wednesday.
Trump, who met Kim three times in his first term to negotiate the North's nuclear programme, has said he would be open to meeting the North Korean leader again and that he had a good relationship with him.
South Korea's foreign ministry said the government hopes exchanges between North Korea and China contribute to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and that China can play a constructive role, while declining to comment directly on the report of Xi's visit.
China is a key economic and political ally of North Korea and the two have made efforts to reinforce ties that had cooled during the COVID-19 pandemic.
North Korean leader Kim visited Beijing last year and stood alongside Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a major military parade.
(Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Chris Reese and Lincoln Feast.)
