Chinese President Xi Jinping has said he is open to developing a “grand plan” with North Korea to achieve permanent stability in the region, in a rare contribution to the Wednesday edition of the DPRK’s ruling party daily.

The article, titled “Let us continuously engrave a new chapter of the era inheriting the friendship of China and the DPRK” and carried on the front page of the Rodong Sinmun, comes a day before President Xi is set to begin a two-day state visit to the North.

Xi’s trip will be the first of its kind to the North by a