Desk : North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday reaffirmed his commitment to strengthening ties with China, describing his recent summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Pyongyang as a “historic occasion” that further deepened the friendship and strategic partnership between the two countries.
In a congratulatory message sent to Xi on the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, Kim said that it remained North Korea’s “steadfast stand” to continuously develop its long-standing relationship with Beijing.
“It is the steadfast stand of our Party and government to steadily develop the DPRK-China friendly relations with long and historical roots and with socialism as their core,” Kim said in the message, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Referring to the recent Pyongyang summit, Kim said the meeting had become a “historic occasion” that strengthened mutual trust and comradely friendship between the two leaders. He added that both sides had reaffirmed their “unshakable will” to advance traditional bilateral relations and expressed his readiness to work closely with Xi to further expand friendly and cooperative ties, calling them “the common wealth of the peoples of the two countries.”
The message comes just weeks after Xi paid a rare visit to Pyongyang, where both leaders pledged to elevate bilateral cooperation and reinforce their strategic partnership. During the summit, North Korean state media said the two sides adopted a “far-reaching blueprint” for future relations and agreed to transform their traditional friendship into “the most powerful and strategic relations.”
Chinese state media also reported that Xi advocated closer cooperation in diplomacy, law enforcement and military affairs.
Although North Korea has strengthened its military partnership with Russia by supplying troops and weapons for Moscow’s war in Ukraine, China continues to be Pyongyang’s most important economic partner. According to South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance, China accounted for nearly 98 percent of North Korea’s foreign trade in 2024, underlining Beijing’s crucial role in sustaining the North Korean economy.