China’s top legislator and a senior North Korean official emphasized opening a “new chapter” of Beijing-Pyongyang relations, the North’s state media said yesterday, as they met for one of the most high-level talks between the allies in years.
Beijing’s third highest-ranking official, Chinese National People’s Congress Standing Committee Chairman Zhao Leji (趙樂際), is on a goodwill visit to the nuclear-armed North as the two countries mark 75 years of diplomatic ties.
China is North Korea’s most important economic benefactor and diplomatic ally, obstructing US-led efforts at the UN Security Council alongside Russia to impose stricter sanctions on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s government in response to its increased weapons tests.
Photo: Korean Central News Agency via EPA-EFE
Zhao and North Korean Supreme People’s Assembly Standing Committee Chairman Choe Ryong-hae attended an opening ceremony for the “year of DPRK-China friendship” in Pyongyang on Friday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, using the acronym for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
In a speech, Zhao said it is the “consistent strategic policy” of Beijing to “successfully defend, consolidate and develop” China-North Korea relations, KCNA reported.
China is willing to “thoroughly implement the important common understanding” of the two countries and “open up a new chapter of China-DPRK friendship along with the times,” he added.
Choe said the two countries’ relationship “has greeted a new heyday under the wise leadership” of their leaders, KCNA said.
Choe and Zhao were seen sitting next to each other watching performances by what KCNA said were “prestigious art troupes” of the two nations at the East Pyongyang Grand Theatre, Agence France-Presse footage showed.
Some performers wore colorful traditional Korean and Chinese garments, and what appeared to be the final moment of the event highlighted a massive image of the countries’ flags, accompanied by the phrase “eternal friendship.”
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