Kim Jong Il, general secretary ofthe Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the National Defense Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), paid an unofficial visit to China from April 19 to 21 at the invitation of Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China(CPC) and Chinese president. A spokesman with the International Department of the CPC Central Committee made the announcement here Wednesday.

        Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and president of China held talks with Kim and hosted a welcoming banquet in honor of Kim and other DPRK guests. Chairman of the CPC Central Military CommissionJiang Zemin met with Kim. Member of the Political Bureau Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee and Chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress Wu Bangguo, Member of the Political Bureau Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee and Premier Wen Jiabao, Member of the Political Bureau Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee and Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Jia Qinglin, and Member of the Political Bureau Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee and Vice-President Zeng Qinghong met with Kim respectively. Leaders of the two parties and the two countries, amid a cordial, friendly and candid atmosphere, briefed each other on their respective domestic conditions, and exchanged views and reached wide-ranging consensus on further developing the relations betweenthe two parties and the two countries, international and regional situations and the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula.

        Hu extended warm welcome to Kim, saying that this visit fully demonstrates the great importance attached by Kim, the WPK and theDPRK government, to the development of the relations between the two parties and the two countries. Kim expressed warm congratulations on China's new collective leadership with Comrade Hu Jintao as general secretary. Kim said he was very happy to meetwith Hu again.

        Leaders of the two parties and the two countries spoke positively of the China-DPRK relations. Hu said that in the new century, both China and the DPRK, in the spirit of inheriting the tradition, facing up to the future, building good-neighborly friendship and strengthening cooperation, have made positive efforts for the development of bilateral relations in the new era.

        Hu said there has been a sound momentum for bilateral high-level exchanges, bilateral exchanges and cooperation at various levels and in different fields have become ever more active, and bilateral economic and trade cooperation have continuously witnessed new progresses. The Chinese side is satisfied with the development of the friendly and cooperative relations between the two parties and the two countries, Hu said.

        Hu said this year is the 55th anniversary of China-DPRK diplomatic relations, and reviewing the development of bilateral relations in the past half a century, China feels deeply that the friendship and cooperation between the two parties and the two countries have been rooted and even firmer as time goes by.

        He said China's new collective leadership treasures the China-DPRK friendship cultivated with care by leaders of elder generations of the two countries, and will continue making effortsfor the consolidation and development of bilateral friendship.

        Hu said under the new circumstances, to raise bilateral friendship and cooperation to a new level in a bid to continuouslyinvigorate bilateral traditional friendship, the Chinese side suggests that both sides further strengthen high-level exchanges between the two parties and the two countries to enhance mutual understanding and trust, strengthen exchanges and deepen bilateraloverall cooperation in various fields, strengthen communication, consultations and cooperation on major international and regional issues, and further develop bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

        Agreeing with Hu, Kim said this year is the 55th anniversary ofbilateral diplomatic ties and it is a year of significance for thedevelopment of bilateral relations at the beginning of the new century.

        He said it is the common aspiration and will of the two partiesand two peoples to further strengthen and develop the DPRK-China friendship. The history in the past half century has proved that the basis of bilateral relations is as firm as monolith.

        Kim said China's new collective leadership, after taking officefor more than a year, has stuck to the consistent policy on consolidating and developing bilateral relations and made positiveefforts to this end, which made the DPRK side feel greatly encouraged.

        The DPRK side will join the Chinese side in inheriting the tradition of close cooperation between the two parties and the twocountries and making new efforts for consolidating and developing bilateral friendly and cooperative relations, Kim said.

        Hu spoke positively of the DPRK's achievements in recent years. He said that in recent years, the DPRK party and people, under Kim's leadership, have carried forward the spirit of self-reliance and arduous work, overcome many difficulties, scored great accomplishment in the process of building a strong and prosperous country, and continuously made new progresses in improving the external environment, with which the Chinese side is sincerely delighted.

(Xinhua News Agency)