North Korea and China deepen party ties with consecutive high-level meetings

Kim Sung-nam, the North Korean Workers’ Party international secretary, visited China and met in succession with senior Chinese Communist Party officials, reaffirming the will to strengthen cooperation between the two parties and the two countries.

Since the summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un in June, high-level exchanges between North Korea and China have continued.

On the 7th, the Korean Central News Agency reported that Secretary Kim held talks with Liu Jianchao, head of the International Liaison Department of the Chinese Communist Party, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on the 6th.

According to the agency, Secretary Kim briefed Director General Liu on the Workers’ Party’s achievements in party building and party activities, and said they are focusing on achieving the first-year goals of the five-year plan put forward at the 9th Party Congress.

Liu said President Xi and the Communist Party of China Central Committee attach importance to the visit by the North Korean delegation and assessed that it is meaningful for the development of North Korea-China relations.

The two sides affirmed mutual support in the fields of socialist construction and foreign relations, and agreed to deepen cooperation between the two parties’ external affairs institutional sector.

Earlier on the 6th, Secretary Kim also met with Cai Qi, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China and the secretary of the Secretariat. Secretary Kim said the personal ties and strategic guidance of State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un and President Xi are the foundation of North Korea-China friendship, and that steadily developing bilateral relations is the firm position of the North Korean Workers’ Party.

Cai stressed that regardless of the international situation, China’s emphasis on traditional North Korea-China friendship and its support for North Korea’s socialist development remain unchanged.

Secretary Kim led a Workers’ Party delegation to Beijing on the 3rd. During the visit to China, he also held talks with Wang Yi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China and foreign minister, among others, meeting successively with three senior Chinese officials.