Top legislator Wu Bangguo met in Beijing with Kim Jong-il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defense Commission of North Korea.

 

Wu, a member of the Political Bureau Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, spoke highly of Kim's visit to China at the beginning of a new year, hoping that this visit would become an important opportunity for further promoting China-North Korea friendly relations.

 

Wu said China and North Korea enjoy frequent high-level visits between the two countries and the two parties, and also witness increasingly active exchanges in various levels and fields.

 

The central collective leadership, with Hu Jintao as general secretary, attaches great importance to China-North Korea friendship, Wu said, noting that China would develop relations with North Korea in the spirit of carrying forward the tradition, looking forward to the future, developing good-neighborliness and friendship and boosting cooperation.

 

China would continue to implement the important consensus of the general secretaries of the two parties in last October and constantly enrich the contents of the China-North Korea good-neighborly and friendly cooperation, in an effort to lift the party-to-party and state-to-state relations between the two sides into a new level, Wu said.

 

Wu also briefed Kim on the situation of China's reform and opening-up, noting that China is ready to further increase exchanges with North Korea of the views on governance and administration of countries and economic development.

 

Kim agreed with Wu's evaluation of the China-North Korea relations. Expressing his appreciation of the Chinese people's selfless assistance and generous support to the North Korean people for a long time, Kim said the North Korean people would be educated by this to ensure to pass on the North Korea-China friendship from generation to generation.

 

Kim paid an unofficial visit to China from January 10 to 18 at the invitation of Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and Chinese president.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2006)