Beijing, September 27 (KCNA correspondent) -- DPRK Premier Choe Yong Rim, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, paid a courtesy call on Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and president of the People's Republic of China, at the Great Hall of the People on Tuesday.

Hu said that it is a historic responsibility of both sides to inherit and develop the Sino-DPRK friendship, a common asset of the two peoples.

It is the steadfast strategic policy of the Chinese party and government to value the Sino-DPRK friendship and steadily develop it in the spirit of "inherit the tradition, facing up to the future, building good-neighborly friendship and strengthening cooperation", he noted.

He stressed the need to strengthen high-level visits, strategic understanding and reciprocal cooperation and jointly defend the peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia.

China will constantly further strengthen the economic and trade relations with the DPRK as its good neighbor, comrade and friend, he added.

Choe said that the traditional DPRK-China friendship is now ushering in a new historic turn under the deep care of leader Kim Jong Il and President Hu Jintao.

The top leaders of the two countries exchanged views of the DPRK-China relations and international and regional issues and reached a consensus, he stated.

Steadfast is the stand of the party and government of the DPRK to value the DPRK-China friendship and consolidate it generation after generation, he noted.

The DPRK will in the future, too, make positive efforts with Chinese comrades to comprehensively expand and develop the DPRK-China friendly and cooperative relations on a higher level and give a steady continuity to the baton of the DPRK-China friendship, he stressed.

Present there were Ro Tu Chol, vice premier of the DPRK, Ri Su Yong, chairman of the Committee of Joint Venture and Investment of the DPRK, Ri Ryong Nam, minister of Foreign Trade, Kim Song Gi, vice-foreign minister, and Ji Jae Ryong, DPRK ambassador to China.

Zhang Zhijun, Executive Vice－Minister of Foreign Affairs, Liu Hongcai, Chinese Ambassador to the DPRK, Chen Shiju, director of the President's Office, and Zhang Kunsheng, assistant to the foreign minister and others, were present there.

The talks proceeded in a comradely and friendly atmosphere.