The new Chinese ambassador to North Korea, Li Jinjun, is expected to make efforts to warm relations with the wayward ally, while "facilitating" long-stalled multilateral talks aimed at persuading Pyongyang to give up its nuclear ambition, a state-run Chinese newspaper said Friday.
  

The appointment of Li, former vice minister of the Chinese Communist Party's International Department, which has been closely engaged in contacts with North Korea's ruling party, comes as political ties between the two nations remain strained because of Pyongyang's defiant pursuit of nuclear weapons.
  

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has yet to visit China since taking the helm of the reclusive state in late 2011. Kim is likely to visit Russia in May in what would be his international debut and an apparent message of affront against China.
  

Li "is on a mission to warm up relations between the neighbors against a backdrop of the DPRK's recent outreach to Russia," the state-run China Daily said, using an acronym for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
  

Bilateral relations between North Korea and China, which jointly fought against South Korea, the United States and 20 other allies countries during the 1950-53 Korean War, were once touted as close as "lips and teeth."
  

But, the current Chinese Communist Party leadership led by President Xi Jinping has been increasingly frustrated by North Korea's unruly behavior, including the North's third nuclear test in early 2013. 
  

Yang Xiyu, a researcher for the China Institute of International Studies, told the newspaper that the new ambassador "will be tasked with the improvement of relations by strengthening economic ties and stepping up efforts to stop the country from pursuing nuclear weapons."
  

Zhang Liangui, a professor of Korean studies at the Party School of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, said bilateral ties between North Korea and China will not be affected by temporary events.
  

"China's relations with the DPRK may undergo ups and downs, but it is not affected by any single event," Zhang told the newspaper.
  

Li, 59, is the second Chinese ambassador to North Korea picked from the Chinese Communist Party's International Department. His predecessor, Liu Hongcai, returned to a vice ministerial post in the department after completing his five-year stint in Pyongyang.
  

According to the newspaper, Li is "one of China's few minister-level ambassadors -- one level senior to most other ambassadors -- signaling the geopolitical importance of the DPRK."
  

China has appointed such senior-level ambassadors to the United States, Japan and Britain, the newspaper said.
  

Li studied German at Shanghai International Studies University in the early 1970s and served as ambassador to Myanmar from 2001 to 2005 and ambassador to the Philippines from 2005 to 2007.
  

China sent its first ambassador to Pyongyang in 1950. Li is the 17th ambassador, according to the newspaper. (Yonhap)