The leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Kim Jong Il, held talks with visiting Chinese Defense Minister Chi Haotian on Tuesday.

Chi, also vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of China, conveyed greetings and regards from Chinese President Jiang Zemin and other Chinese leaders. Kim in return asked Chi to convey his greetings and regards to Jiang and other Chinese leaders.

The Worker's Party of the DPRK and the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the two governments as well as the two militaries have a good relationship, said Kim, adding that the two sides should further develop the traditional friendship and strengthen friendly exchanges.

It is necessary for the two countries to show to the world that such a friendship between them and between the CPC and the Worker's Party is "unbreakable," Kim stressed.

The friendship between the two parties and the two armies is not a common relationship, he added. Fifty years ago, the Chinese People's Volunteers, fighting side by side with the DPRK, resisted foreign aggression and won great victories that are of great significance to both countries and the world, said Chi.

In nearly half a century after the war, the DPRK people, led by the late DPRK leader Kim Il Sung, have overcome many difficulties and made a series of remarkable achievements in all fields, Chi said.

The traditional friendship between China and the DPRK, forged and fostered by the leaders of previous generations of the two countries, is inherited and developed into a new stage under the solicitude of Jiang and Kim Jong Il, Chi noted.

The two countries should further develop and cement bilateral friendship in accordance with the common cognition reached by leaders of the two countries, he added.

(People's Daily 10/26/2000)