The top diplomats of North Korea and China met and agreed to strengthen "strategic communication and support cooperation" between their foreign affairs institutions.
Korean Central News Agency said on the 10th that Wang Yi, a Commissioner of the Communist Party of China's Politburo and Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui promised this during talks held in Pyongyang the previous day as they agreed to strengthen multifaceted exchanges and cooperation.
Choe said the relationship "is developing vigorously at a new and higher stage," adding, "We will further strengthen North Korea–China friendship, with socialism as the fundamental cornerstone of our shared ideology, in line with the aspirations and interests of the two peoples."
Wang also said that at the North Korea–China summit held on the occasion of Kim Jong-un's visit to China in Sep. last year, "a fundamental guideline with milestone significance was presented," adding, "No matter how the international situation changes, it is the unwavering position of the Chinese party and government to properly safeguard, firmly consolidate, and soundly develop North Korea–China friendship."
Marking the 65th anniversary this year of the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, they are expected to closely consolidate the diplomatic authority channels. North Korea and China signed a treaty on July 11, 1961, that included a "clause on automatic military intervention" premised on mutual defense.
With this meeting, they are also expected to strengthen solidarity on relations with the United States and issues on the Korean Peninsula ahead of the North Korea–U.S. summit next month.
In a banquet speech hosted by the North the previous evening, Wang, the Director General, emphasized that "despite the intensifying attempts by the United States and other Western forces to isolate and stifle it, North Korea is achieving new results in building socialism."
At the same event, Choe also emphasized, "It is the consistent policy of our party and government to value the North Korea–China friendship, which has overcome all the vicissitudes of history and carried on the fine tradition of unity and cooperation with socialism at its core, and to constantly deepen and develop it."