In the new century, Kim Jong Il visited Russia and China on several occasions to promote the cause of global independence.

In August 2001, he visited the Russian Federation and saw to it that the DPRK-Russia Moscow Declaration was adopted. And he made immortal contribution to the development of the friendly relations between the DPRK and Russia and the peace and security in the Korean Peninsula and the human cause of independence by visiting the Siberian and Far Eastern regions in August 2011.

He also provided milestones for the improvement of the relations between the DPRK and Japan and between the DPRK and EU.

In his answers to questions raised by the president of the Kyodo News Service on September 14, 2002, he said that Asian countries, the DPRK and Japan, should co-exist and co-prosper as close neighbors, not as close and distant countries.

Later, the DPRK-Japan Pyongyang Declaration was adopted and published under his bold political determination, broad magnanimity and extraordinary diplomacy.

In May 2001, he met with a top-level delegation of the European Union and gave clear and precious instructions to the issue of improving the relations between the DPRK and EU and some international issues.

Indeed, Kim Jong Il was a peerlessly elder statesman who performed immortal exploits for the development of international relations in the new century.