N. Korea, China exchange New Year embassy receptions

SEOUL, Jan. 16 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has held a New Year reception for Chinese
diplomats in Pyongyang, the North's official news agency said, amid a flurry of
diplomatic exchanges between the allies marking the 60th anniversary of
relations.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and Chinese President Hu Jintao pledged closer
ties between Pyongyang and Beijing in their New Year messages exchanged on Jan.
1.
Wang Jiarui, head of the international department of the central committee of
China's Communist Party, reportedly plans to visit Pyongyang this month. Wang met
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on many of his previous visits.
China's Foreign Ministry sent a delegation to Pyongyang for a four-day visit that
ended on Monday.
The international affairs department of the central committee of the North's
Workers' Party "arranged a reception in honor of the staff members of the Chinese
embassy here at Pyongyang Koryo Hotel on the occasion of the New Year," the
Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said late Thursday.
Chinese ambassador to Pyongyang Liu Xiaoming attended the event, while North
Korea's Pak Kyong-son and Kim Thae-jong, vice department directors of the
Workers' Party Central Committee, hosted the reception, it said.
China's Foreign Ministry invited North Korean diplomats in China to a friendly
gathering on Wednesday, following a Tuesday banquet hosted by the North Korean
embassy in Beijing, the KCNA said in separate reports.
"In the meaningful year of 2009, which marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic
relations between the two countries, exchanges and cooperation in each sector
will be deepened and elevated to a greater level in accordance with the will of
the two countries' great leaders to open a new chapter in the history of
friendship between Korea and China," North Korean ambassador to Beijing Choe
Jin-su was quoted by KCNA as saying at the Tuesday event.
China did not confirm Wang's reported plan to visit North Korea. Wang's previous
North Korea trips have usually coincided with important events in North Korea. He
met North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in January 2004, shortly before Kim's rare
visit to China, and in February 2005, shortly after North Korea declared its
possession of nuclear weapons.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)