CARRYING FORWARD TRADITIONAL FRIENDSHIP

The top leaders of the two parties and the two countries have stood together through thick and thin, enabling the traditional friendship between China and the DPRK to demonstrate vigorous vitality in the new era.

In a speech at the welcome banquet held by Kim during Xi's state visit to the DPRK in 2019, Xi hailed the traditional friendship between the two sides a shared valuable asset forged and left by leaders of elder generations of both countries, saying that such a friendship has remained strong and vigorous despite constant changes.

During the visit, Xi paid homage to martyrs of the Chinese People's Volunteers at the Friendship Tower in Pyongyang. Xi wrote down in the inscription book "To remember the martyrs" and "The China-DPRK friendship lasts from generation to generation."

The traditional friendship between China and the DPRK was forged by the elder generation of leaders of the two parties and two countries, cemented in the revolutionary struggle, and continuously deepened in the course of socialist construction, Xi said in his exchange of New Year greeting messages with Kim in 2024.

During Xi's visit to the DPRK in 2019, hundreds of thousands of residents in Pyongyang lined up the streets to welcome the Chinese president. Xi also watched a large group callisthenics and art performance.

During talks with Kim in Beijing last year, Xi, recalling the visit, said he could feel the family-like friendship between the two peoples all along the way.

The friendship between the two countries has been further reinforced by friendly exchanges between the two peoples. During their exchange of New Year greeting messages in 2024, Xi and Kim jointly designated 2024 as the China-DPRK Friendship Year.

In the message, Xi called on the two sides to carry forward the long-standing friendship, deepen strategic mutual trust, enhance exchanges and cooperation, and ensure that bilateral ties move forward with the times for greater development.