Pyongyang, June 9 (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, hosted a banquet at the Mokran House on the evening of June 8 in welcome of Comrade Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and president of the People's Republic of China.

Invited to the banquet were entourage members of the Chinese side including Cai Qi, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau, member of the Secretariat and director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, Wang Yi, member of the Political Bureau and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee and minister of Foreign Affairs, Liu Haixing, head of the International Liaison Department of the CPC Central Committee, Tang Fangyu, director of the Policy Research Office of the CPC Central Committee, Dong Jun, minister of National Defence of the PRC, Zeng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Committee of the PRC, and Wang Wentao, minister of Commerce of the PRC, and staff members of the Chinese embassy here.

Present there were Kim Jae Ryong and Ri Il Hwan, members of the Presidium of the Political Bureau and secretaries of the C.C., WPK, Kim Song Nam, member of the Political Bureau and secretary of the C.C., WPK, Choe Son Hui, foreign minister of the DPRK, No Kwang Chol, minister of National Defence of the DPRK, and other senior Party and government and military officials.

Comrade Kim Jong Un together with his wife Ri Sol Ju gladly met with Comrade Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan at the Mokran House and had a photo session against the background of the national flags of the two countries.

When Comrade Kim Jong Un appeared at the banquet hall together with Comrade Xi Jinping, all the participants welcomed the top leaders of the two parties and two countries with enthusiastic applause.

Comrade Kim Jong Un made a speech in welcome of Comrade Xi Jinping, general secretary of the C.C., CPC and president of the PRC.

Comrade Kim Jong Un said that he warmly welcomed Comrade General Secretary Xi Jinping, who paid a state visit to the DPRK with the warm feelings of fraternity and friendship with the DPRK people once again, on behalf of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and the government of the DPRK and on his own behalf, adding that the great enthusiasm for welcome witnessed on the streets of Pyongyang and along the route clearly shows the comradely friendship and fraternal feelings of the WPK and DPRK people toward Comrade Xi Jinping and the Chinese party and people and power of the invincible DPRK-China friendly relations.

Comrade Kim Jong Un noted that the will of the peoples of the two countries to jointly build a beautiful future on the road of struggle for socialism was reaffirmed through the Pyongyang meeting and talks.

Saying that the two parties and two countries could consolidate the bonds of unity and cooperation, sharing their destiny for a long time as they are not merely neighbors naturally and topographically but they are united on the basis of the commonness of ideology and militant friendship, he expressed the will to develop the DPRK-China friendship with good history and tradition as the foundation into a model of the most powerful and strategic relations between socialist countries by leading it to a new height.

Sincerely hoping that under the leadership of the Communist Party of China with Comrade Xi Jinping as its core, the Chinese people will make greater changes in the sacred cause for comprehensively building a modern and powerful socialist country, attaining the second century goal and realizing the great prosperity of the Chinese nation, he expressed belief that the DPRK-China friendship growing stronger day by day with the common will and efforts on the basis of long fraternal friendship and trust would greet a brighter future.

Then Comrade Xi Jinping made a reply speech.

He expressed his sincere thanks to Comrade Kim Jong Un and the Korean party and government and people for sincere, splendid and warm hospitality to the Chinese delegation, saying that he was pleased to visit the DPRK again in the beautiful season full of vigor and vitality and share friendship with Comrade General Secretary Kim Jong Un to the full and discuss the future together with him.

He said that China and the DPRK have always shared their destiny and the traditional China-DPRK friendship is the invincible one with a long history, referring to the great friendship between the peoples of the two countries who shared life and death, sweets and bitters in the annals of the revolution.

Saying that the China-DPRK relations are at a new historic starting point this year marking the 65th anniversary of the conclusion of the China-DPRK Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance and he had an important common understanding with Comrade Kim Jong Un during his current visit, he expressed the will to develop the China-DPRK relations on a high level, open up a more beautiful prospect for the socialist cause of the two countries and promote the steady progress of human society in cooperation with each other.

He said that the Ninth Congress of the WPK convened this year drew up a strategic plan for long-term development of the Party and state affairs and made a crucial assignment, thus opening up a new era of overall development of socialism in the DPRK, sincerely hoping that under the firm leadership of the WPK headed by Comrade General Secretary Kim Jong Un, the DPRK people will steadily open up a new phase of the socialist cause of the DPRK by smoothly achieving the goals and tasks set forth at the Party Congress.

The participants in the banquet toasted to the steady development of the DPRK-China friendship.

The banquet proceeded in a warm atmosphere full of friendship and fraternity. -0-