BEIJING: Zhao Leji, chairman of China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee, met Kim Jong Un, the top leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), in Pyongyang on Saturday.
Zhao, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, led a party and government delegation on an official goodwill visit to the DPRK from Thursday to Saturday. He attended the opening ceremony of the “China-DPRK Friendship Year” during the visit.
During Saturday’s meeting with Kim, general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) and president of the State Affairs of the DPRK, Zhao said China and the DPRK have been good neighbors for 75 years, fighting side by side, sharing a common future and promoting common development.
The two countries celebrate the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations in 2024.
Zhao said under the new situation, China is ready to work with the DPRK to promote greater development of bilateral relations.
The CPC and the Chinese government have always viewed China-DPRK relations from a strategic and long-term perspective, he said. “It is our unswerving policy to maintain, consolidate and develop the traditional friendly cooperative relations between China and the DPRK.”
China is willing to work with the DPRK under the strategic guidance of the top leaders of the two parties and two countries, promote pragmatic and mutually beneficial cooperation to achieve new results, continue to strongly support each other and safeguard both sides’ common interests, said Zhao.
China is willing to coordinate closely with the DPRK to jointly organize various activities of the “China-DPRK Friendship Year,” he added.
Kim said it is the unswerving policy of the WPK and the DPRK government to consolidate and develop the traditional friendly cooperative relations between China and the DPRK.
The relations between the two countries are constantly developing to a higher stage in accordance with the requirements of the new era, he said.
The DPRK is ready to strengthen cooperation in various fields and exchange experience in state governance with China to deepen traditional friendship and write a new chapter in DPRK-China relations, said Kim.
