North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to strengthen relations between the two countries for regional peace and stability, the North's official news agency said Friday.
The two leaders reached the agreement during summit talks held in Pyongyang on Thursday after exchanging wide-ranging views on important international and regional issues, including the Korean Peninsula situation, the Korean Central News Agency reported.
The two leaders "assessed that it is in line with mutual interests of the two countries and conducive to developing regional peace and stability to further move relations between the DPRK and China forward in the current environment where serious and complex changes are taking place in the international and regional situations," the KCNA said.
(Yonhap)
Top North Korean officials, including Choe Ryong-hae, Kim Jae-ryong, Ri Su-yong, Ri Yong-ho and Kim Su-gil accompanied leader Kim at the summit. Kim Yong-chol, who served as the chief negotiator in nuclear talks with the US, was not present at the talks.
The summit took place in a serious and candid atmosphere, the KCNA added.
Xi arrived in Pyongyang on Thursday for a two-day state visit, marking the first time a head of state of China had visited the North in 14 years.
In separate articles, the KCNA reported on Xi's arrival at the Sunan airport and the welcome ceremony, as well as an evening banquet and the mass games and art performance the leaders watched together with their wives.
At the banquet, Xi delivered a speech and expressed support for the North's new strategic line and its efforts to politically resolve the Korean Peninsula issue, the KCNA said.
Xi also visited the headquarters of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party and held a photo session with the politburo members, the KCNA said. (Yonhap)