PYONGYANG -- A special envoy of Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), left here Wednesday for a visit to China, the official KCNA news agency reported.

Choe Ryong Hae, director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army, left Pyongyang by air for the visit, the KCNA said.

It is the first time that a DPRK envoy visits China since Kim took power after his father Kim Jong Il died in December 2011.