China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday denounced rumors that the timing of the country’s special envoy’s visit to the DPRK is related to U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent visit to China, adding that such practice is merely a long-standing tradition.

“The purpose of this visit is to brief about the party congress and exchange views on issues of common interest and bilateral interest. Informing each other on Party Congress has been a long-standing tradition between the Communist Party of China and Communist Party of other socialist countries including the Workers’ Party of the DPRK,” Spokesperson Geng Shuang said on Wednesday.

According to the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, Song Tao, a special envoy of President Xi Jinping and minister of the International Department, will leave for the DPRK to inform the country of the 19th CPC Congress and visit the DPRK on November 17. Song will be the first ministerial-level official to visit the DPRK since 2015, as high-level visits between the two nations have been halted for years due to the Korean Peninsula crisis.

Despite the fact that Trump has repeatedly called on China to do more to pressure Pyongyang into altering its nuclear plan, China insists that it has been comprehensively implementing DPRK-related UN Security Council resolutions, and any new sanctions should be formulated by the Security Council.

“China has been comprehensively, accurately, faithfully, and strictly implementing all DPRK-related resolutions adopted by the Security Council, and fulfilling our due international obligations, Geng said. “At the same time, we oppose unilateral sanctions imposed on the basis of one's domestic laws and outside the Security Council framework. Our position is also quite clear.”