Invited to the reception were Hu Chunhua, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and vice-premier of the State Council, and officials of the State Council, the Foreign Ministry, the International Liaison Department of the C.C., CPC, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of National Defense, the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, the People's Daily, the Xinhua News Agency and other relevant organs.

Present there were DPRK Ambassador to China Ji Jae Ryong and his embassy officials.

The DPRK ambassador, in his speech at the reception, recalled that President Kim Il Sung, together with Premier Zhou Enlai, inked the DPRK-China Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance and thus provided a legal foundation for boosting the traditional DPRK-China friendship in various sectors.

Thanks to the deep trust and personal relations forged between Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un and President Xi Jinping, the DPRK-China friendship is invariably developing despite the complicated international situation, the ambassador said, terming the five meetings between the top leaders of the two countries events of great significance that markedly demonstrated at home and abroad the immutability of the DPRK-China friendship.

The vice-premier of the State Council of China said the traditional China-DPRK friendship provided by the leaders of elder generations of the two countries serve as common precious wealth, recalling that the two sides have dynamically accelerated the socialist construction and developed the bilateral relations steadily while supporting and closely cooperating each other on the principle of and in the spirit of the treaty.

Noting that it is the consistent and fixed policy of the party and the government of China to preserve, consolidate and develop the China-DPRK relations on good terms, the vice-premier said this year marks the 70th anniversary of establishment of the diplomatic relations between the two countries. The vice-premier expressed conviction that the bilateral relations would greet a rosier future thanks to the joint efforts of the two sides.

The DPRK General Consulate in Shenyang and its branch in Dandong also hosted receptions on the same occasion.