Pyongyang, May 6 (KCNA) -- The respected Comrade 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, received a reply message from Comrade Thongloun Sisoulith, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and president of the Lao People's Democratic Republic, on April 30.

The reply message said:

Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un,

I express sincere thanks to you for extending warm congratulations full of friendship to me on my reelection as president of the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

Your warm congratulations and best wishes, as an expression of fraternal and comradely friendship, unity and interest, show the close relations between our two parties, two states and the peoples of the two countries with a long tradition and, at the same time, serve as a great encouragement to me to continue to carry on the noble duty of leading the Lao party, state and people.

I will further expand and develop the relations of friendship between the Lao People's Democratic Republic and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea with a long tradition onto a new high stage in close cooperation with you in the future, thus bringing substantial benefits to the peoples of the two countries and contributing to peace, stability, cooperation and development of the region and the rest of the world.

I wish you good health and happiness and success in the accomplishment of your noble cause for building a powerful socialist country.

I pay high tribute to you. -0-