Chinese President Xi Jinping urges North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to boost communications amid ‘complex and serious’ changes
- Details of last week’s call were released hours before G7 foreign ministers told the North to refrain from further nuclear tests or other ‘provocations’
- Xi told Kim that he hoped to ‘strengthen strategic communication’ between the two sides and promote friendly cooperation
In a recent message to Kim, Xi stressed the “traditional friendship” between China and North Korea had “weathered the trials of the changed international situation for a long time, constantly maintained the trend of its development and got stronger with the passage of time”.
“The international and regional situations are now changing seriously and in a complicated way,” Xi told Kim, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
“I am willing to strengthen strategic communication with Comrade General Secretary [Kim], jointly lead the direction of development of China-DPRK relations, and promote friendly cooperation between the two sides to a higher level,” the message said, using the North’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.