The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and President of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, hosted a banquet at the Mokran House on the evening of June 8 in welcome of Comrade Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and President of the People's Republic of China.

Invited to the banquet were entourage members of the Chinese side including Cai Qi, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau, member of the Secretariat and director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, Wang Yi, member of the Political Bureau and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee and minister of Foreign Affairs, Liu Haixing, head of the International Liaison Department of the CPC Central Committee, Tang Fangyu, director of the Policy Research Office of the CPC Central Committee, Dong Jun, minister of National Defence of the PRC, Zeng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Committee of the PRC, and Wang Wentao, minister of Commerce of the PRC, and staff members of the Chinese embassy in Pyongyang.

Present there were Kim Jae Ryong and Ri Il Hwan, members of the Presidium of the Political Bureau and secretaries of the WPK Central Committee, Kim Song Nam, member of the Political Bureau and secretary of the WPK Central Committee, Choe Son Hui, foreign minister, No Kwang Chol, minister of National Defence, and other senior Party, government and military officials of the DPRK.

Comrade Kim Jong Un together with his wife Ri Sol Ju gladly met with Comrade Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan at the Mokran House and had a photo taken against the background of the national flags of the two countries.

When he appeared at the banquet hall together with Comrade Xi Jinping, all the participants welcomed the top leaders of the two parties and two countries with enthusiastic applause.

Comrade Kim Jong Un made a speech in welcome of Comrade Xi Jinping.

He said that he warmly welcomed once again Comrade General Secretary Xi Jinping, who paid a state visit to the DPRK with the warm feelings of fraternity and friendship with the Korean people, on behalf of the WPK Central Committee and the government of the DPRK and on his own behalf, stating that the great enthusiasm for welcome that was witnessed along the route of Pyongyang streets today clearly shows the comradely friendship and fraternal feelings of the WPK and the Korean people toward Comrade Xi Jinping and the Chinese Party and people and might of the invincible DPRK-China friendship.

He noted that the will of the peoples of the two countries to jointly create a beautiful future on the road of struggle for socialism was reaffirmed through the Pyongyang meeting and talks.

Saying that the two parties and two countries could consolidate the bonds of unity and cooperation, sharing their destiny for a long time, as they are not merely physiographical neighbours but they are united on the basis of a common ideology and militant friendship, he expressed his readiness to develop the DPRK-China friendship founded on a good history and tradition into a model of the most powerful and strategic relations between socialist countries by leading it to a new height.

Sincerely wishing the Chinese people, led by the Communist Party of China with Comrade Xi Jinping as its core, greater successes in the sacred cause for comprehensively building a modern and powerful socialist country, attaining the second century goal and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, he expressed the hope that the DPRK-China friendship growing stronger day by day by the common will and efforts on the basis of long-standing fraternal friendship and trust would greet a brighter future.

Then Comrade Xi Jinping made a reply speech.

He expressed his heartfelt thanks to Comrade General Secretary Kim Jong Un and the Korean Party, government and people for sincere, splendid and warm hospitality to the Chinese delegation, saying that he was pleased to share friendship with Comrade Kim Jong Un to the full and discuss the future together with him on his another visit to the DPRK in the beautiful season full of vigour and vitality.

He said that China and the DPRK have always shared destiny and that the traditional bilateral friendship is an invincible one with a long history, referring to the great friendship between the peoples of the two countries who shared life and death, sweets and bitters, in the annals of the revolution.

Saying that the bilateral relations are at a new historic starting point this year marking the 65th anniversary of the conclusion of the China-DPRK Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance and that he achieved an important common understanding with Comrade Kim Jong Un during his current visit, he expressed the will to make joint efforts to develop the bilateral relations on a high level, open up a more beautiful prospect for the socialist cause of the two countries and promote the steady progress of human society.

He said that the Ninth Congress of the WPK held this year drew up a strategic plan for the long-term development of the Party and state affairs and made a crucial assignment, thus opening up a new period of overall development of Korean socialism, and sincerely hoped that under the firm leadership of the WPK headed by Comrade General Secretary Kim Jong Un, the Korean people would steadily open up a new phase of the socialist cause of the DPRK by smoothly achieving the goals and carrying out the tasks set forth at the Party Congress.

The participants in the banquet toasted the steady consolidation and development of the DPRK-China friendship.

The banquet proceeded in a warm atmosphere full of friendship and fraternity.