ANKARA 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and China's top legislator Zhao Leji met on Saturday in Pyongyang, and vowed to deepen bilateral ties amid heightened tensions in the Korean Peninsula, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.

Kim said Pyongyang is willing to "deepen traditional friendship and write a new chapter" in ties.

He observed that bilateral ties are "constantly developing to a new and higher stage in accordance with the requirements of the new era," adding that it is North Korea's "unswerving policy" to further deepen their ties.

Zhao, China's third-highest ranked official who leads the national legislature, said Beijing is eager to "promote bilateral pragmatic and mutually beneficial cooperation to achieve new results.

Zhao, along with Choe Ryong-hae, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK), attended the opening ceremony of the Year of DPRK-China Friendship on Friday to mark the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Choe, in his remarks, reaffirmed the "unshakable will to further develop the traditional relations of friendship and cooperation with socialism as the core," KCNA news agency reported.

According to Choe, bilateral relations are valuable and precious not only because the two countries are geographically close but also because they have been forged in the struggle for the "common cause."

Zhao said it is "the consistent strategic policy of the Chinese party and government to successfully defend, consolidate and develop the traditional China-DPRK friendly relations."

Zhao, who arrived in Pyongyang on Thursday for a three-day visit, is the first high-ranking Chinese official to visit North Korea since the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020.