HANOI, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Kim Jong Un, the top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), will pay an official friendly visit to Vietnam in the coming days, the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Saturday.

The visit by Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK, will be made at the invitation of General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee and State President Nguyen Phu Trong, the ministry made the announcement on its website.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Feb. 8 that his second meeting with Kim would take place in Hanoi, Vietnam on Feb. 27-28. His first meeting with Kim in June 2018 in Singapore resulted in improved U.S.-DPRK relations.

However, differences on key issues such as a road map for denuclearization, the lifting of sanctions and whether to issue a war-ending declaration still hinder negotiations.