Chinese top legislator Wu Bangguo met with Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defense Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

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-DPRK friendly relations.

Wu said China and the DPRK 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-DPRK friendship, Wu said, noting that China would develop relations with the DPRK 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-DPRK 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 the DPRK of the views on governance and administration of countries and economic development.

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

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

Source: Xinhua