Pyongyang, June 2 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun says in an article on Friday that the first historic visit of Chairman Kim Jong Il to China marked an epochal milestone in carrying forward and further developing the tradition of the DPRK-China friendship forged at the cost of blood.

Kim Jong Il visited China from June 2 to 12, Juche 72 (1983) at the invitation of the Chinese party and government, the article notes, and goes on:

His first historic visit to China marked an important occasion in putting on a higher stage the DPRK-China friendship which was forged in the fierce flames of the anti-Japanese war and consolidated in the struggle to build and defend socialism.

The invincibility of militant friendship and solidarity between the two parties, states and peoples was fully demonstrated and a bright prospect for the development of the DPRK-China friendly relations opened.

Kim Jong Il had made tireless efforts and worked heart and soul to steadily consolidate and develop the DPRK-China friendship till the last moments of his life.

The DPRK-China friendship, which President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il glorified together with the leaders of the elder generation of China, is being invariably carried forward by Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and president of the People's Republic of China.

The intimacy and genuine comradely friendship between the leaders of the two parties and two countries serve as the driving force making the DPRK-China friendship dynamically develop despite any change of the situation and challenge.

The relations between the two parties and the two countries are developing into unprecedentedly special relations and inseparably special friendship.

The article stresses that the DPRK will as ever develop the DPRK-China friendship comprehensively onto a higher stage together with the Chinese comrades, continue to dynamically promote the socialist cause in the two countries and firmly defend peace and security in the Korean Peninsula and the rest of the world, true to the noble intention and wise leadership of the respected General Secretary Kim Jong Un. -0-