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)
