Hu said that the Conference of the WPK that was successfully held in the run-up to the 65th birthday of the WPK reelected Kim Jong Il as general secretary of the WPK.

Hu noted that he extends once again warm congratulations to Kim Jong Il, the WPK Central Committee and all the Korean people from the bottom of his heart on behalf of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

He stressed that he is convinced that the Korean people would achieve greater successes in building a thriving socialist nation under the leadership of the WPK headed by Kim Jong Il.

He expressed belief that the traditional Sino-DPRK friendship provided and cultivated by Chairman Mao Zedong and President Kim Il Sung would steadily grow stronger and be conveyed down to posterity.

Noting that Kim Jong Il visited China twice this year, he continued:

I had a frank and in-depth exchange of views on the bilateral relations and important international and regional matters and reached a consensus on wide-ranging issues.

It is the steadfast policy of the CPC to attach utmost importance to the development of relations with the DPRK and boost the traditional relations of friendship and cooperation between the two countries.

We will make positive efforts together with the central leadership organ of the WPK headed by General Secretary Kim Jong Il to develop the bilateral friendly and cooperative relations and defend the regional peace and security in the spirit of "inheriting tradition, facing up to the future, building good neighborly friendship and strengthening cooperation."

The talks proceeded in a comradely and friendly atmosphere.

Present there were Wang Jiarui, head of the International Liaison Department of the CPC Central Committee, Chen Shiju, director of General Secretary Hu Jintao's Office, Liu Jieyi, deputy head of the International Liaison Department of the CPC Central Committee, and Choe Pyong Gwan, DPRK ambassador to China.