Xi welcomes friendship visit from DPRK

PRESIDENT Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, met a friendship visiting group of the Workers’ Party of Korea of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea yesterday.

The group was led by Pak Thae Song, member of the Political Bureau and vice chairman of the WPK Central Committee, and composed of senior provincial and municipal level party officials.

Pak extended greetings to Xi from DPRK leader Kim Jong Un, chairman of the WPK and chairman of the DPRK State Affairs Commission. Xi also conveyed his best wishes to Kim via Pak.

“Chairman Kim paid a successful visit to China in March and we had a historic meeting. Last week, Chairman Kim and I met again in Dalian. We had an in-depth exchange of views on major issues of common concern, charting a clear course for the China-DPRK relations in the new era,” Xi said.

Xi said the current visit by senior provincial and municipal level party officials of the DPRK was not only the concrete implementation of the consensus reached between him and Kim, but also an important exchange between the CPC and the WPK.

“This embodies the great importance Chairman Kim and the WPK Central Committee have attached to enhancing exchanges between the two parties and the two countries, and deepening China-DPRK friendly cooperation,” Xi said.

He

believed both

sides would take the occasion of the visit to further advance exchange and cooperation to forge ahead with the ChinaDPRK friendship.

Xi said socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era while the DPRK’s socialist development has entered a new period.

“China backs the improvement of inter-Korean ties, the advancement of dialogue between the DPRK and the United States, and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Xi said.

“China supports the DPRK in developing its economy and improving its people’s livelihood, and supports Chairman Kim in leading the Party and the people of DPRK to take a development path suitable to its own national situation.”

Xi pledged to strengthen exchanges of experiences in party and state governance in the hope of promoting better development of the two countries’ socialist causes.

Calling the visiting officials the “backbone of the DPRK’s socialist cause,” Xi expressed his wishes that they would score greater achievements in promoting the DPRK’s economic and social development under Kim’s leadership.

Pak said top leaders of the WPK and the CPC have carried forward the fine tradition of friendship between the two countries and promoted bilateral ties to a new stage.

He told Xi that the visiting friendship group aimed to implement the consensus reached by top leaders of the two parties.