Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un professed their intention to strengthen bilateral ties on Sunday while exchanging messages on the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Friendship signed between the two countries on July 11, 1961. The defence treaty guarantees cooperation and mutual assistance during an armed attack.
The messages from the leaders were delivered by Song Tao, the minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and Ri Ryong Nam, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) ambassador to China, during a meeting in Beijing on Monday.
Xinhua News reported Xi as saying that he is ready to work with Kim “to strengthen strategic communication, chart the course for the China-DPRK relationship and lift the friendly cooperation between the two countries to new levels to bring more benefits to the two countries and their people.” Xi added that “China firmly supports the DPRK in developing its economy, improving its people’s wellbeing, and vigorously advancing its cause of socialist construction.” “The Chinese side stands ready to work with the DPRK comrades to maintain, consolidate and develop China-DPRK relations, and strive to achieve new outcomes in the socialist causes of both countries, to bring more benefits to both peoples,” Xi concluded.
Kim, in his message, said that “the signing of the treaty demonstrated to the world the firm will of the two parties as well as the governments and people of the two countries to promote long-term development of the DPRK-China friendship forged with blood on a solid legal basis.” Refering to Pyongyang’s ruling party, the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), Kim said, “It is the unswerving position of the WPK and the DPRK government to continuously strengthen and develop the DPRK-China friendly and cooperative relations.” He added that North Korea “will attach greater importance to the DPRK-China friendship, a common treasure of both sides, and march forward hand in hand with the CPC, the Chinese government and the Chinese people in the sacred journey of building socialism and communism.”
Moreover, North Korea’s state-owned media house, Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), elaborated on Kim’s message on Sunday. “It is the firm stand of our Party and government to continue to dynamically develop the DPRK-China friendly relations with socialism as its core,” the KCNA quoted Kim as saying. It also highlighted the role of the pact in “ensuring peace and stability in Asia and the rest of the world now that the hostile forces become more desperate in their challenge and obstructive moves.”
During a press conference last Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin, while referring to the treaty, said: “We will earnestly implement the important common understanding reached by our top-level state and party leadership, follow the requirements of the changing times and common aspiration of the two peoples, push forward the traditional friendship and cooperation, to better benefit the two peoples and make contributions to promoting peace, stability, development and prosperity in the region and beyond.”
China is North Korea’s longtime ally and economic benefactor, and the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1949. The Straits Times mentioned that Kim first visited China in March 2018 and the two leaders have since met five times. However, the bilateral ties between the two nations date back to the 1930s, when Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Un’s grandfather, led Korean guerrillas alongside Chinese soldiers to fight Japanese colonisers.
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SOURCE: XINHUA via AFP