Leaders of N. Korea, China vow stronger ties

SEOUL, July 10 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and Chinese President Hu Jintao vowed to further strengthen ties between their countries Sunday in an exchange of letters marking the signing of a treaty between the two communist nations 50 years ago.
In a letter to the Chinese president sent Sunday, Kim claimed the treaty between the countries helped promote socialist ideas and also ensure peace and stability in Northeast Asia, according to a report by the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
"It is the steadfast stand of the party and the government of the DPRK to steadily consolidate the DPRK-China friendly and cooperative relations, the precious legacy and common treasure handed down by the leaders of the elder generations of the two countries generation after generation," the letter said, according to the KCNA report. DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Hu repeated the call for stronger North Korea-China ties.
"The Sino-DPRK friendship is the one which was provided by the leaders of the elder generation of the two countries and cultivated with sincerity by them and which has stood the tests of history and is deeply rooted in the minds of the two peoples," he said in a letter to the North Korean leader, also sent Sunday, according to the KCNA.
"It is the firm strategic policy of the Chinese party and government to steadily consolidate and develop the Sino-DPRK friendly and cooperative relations," Hu's letter said.
North Korea has increasingly been looking to its largest ally China for food and other economic assistance, especially since South Korea cut off its aid to the impoverished North in retaliation for Pyongyang's recent armed provocations and continued nuclear ambitions.
Kim and Hu met in Beijing in May when Kim made his third trip to China in just one year, making the recent visits the most often the reclusive North Korean leader has gone to the neighboring country.
However, China's pledge to improve its ties with North Korea, though it has done so annually for the past 50 years, comes amid the international community's call for Beijing to use its influence on Pyongyang to put an end to the latter's nuclear ambition.
North Korea conducted a nuclear test in 2006 and again in 2009.
It has been boycotting six-nation talks on ending its nuclear program since late 2008, though it has recently shown willingness to return to the multilateral negotiations that also involve South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.
China, the host of the talks, has been trying to reopen the negotiations since the North's quitting of the talks in 2008, but its efforts hit a stumbling block last year when the North sank a South Korean warship and bombed a South Korean island, killing total of 50 South Koreans, including two civilians.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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