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President Hu's Pyongyang Visit Successful: Official

Chinese President Hu Jintao returned to Beijing on October 30 after an official goodwill visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) which was regarded successful and fruitful.

During Hu's visit, he held talks with Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the DPRK's National Defence Commission.

Top leaders of the two countries agreed to proposed directions for the development of bilateral ties through their meetings and discussions, said Wang Jiarui, head of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee.

Wang, who accompanied Hu throughout his DPRK visit, said the two leaders had reviewed the development of China-DPRK relations over the past 56 years and agreed that the China-DPRK friendship, which was cultivated by the older generations of leadership, is the common wealth of the two nations, two parties and two peoples.

They agreed that the two sides should continue to deepen and develop the traditional friendship and further promote the China-DPRK friendly and cooperative ties. Such is the unswerving policy of the two countries and their common responsibility, Wang said.

Wang said Hu and Kim also agreed to keep high-level contacts, expand cooperation and exchanges, promote economic and trade cooperation for common development and improve coordination and cooperation to safeguard common interests.

On the Korean nuclear issue, Wang said the two leaders reiterated that they would continue to push for a peaceful solution through dialogue.

Wang quoted Hu as saying that the fourth round of the six-party talks had achieved substantial progress.

He said Hu emphasized that China upholds the objective of building a nuclear-free Korean peninsula, resolving the problemme through dialogue and safeguarding peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.

Hu said China would work with the DPRK and all other parties concerned to implement the general objective stated in the Joint Statement and help achieve new progress in the fifth round of the six-party talks, according to Wang.

Wang said Kim highly appreciated China's positive stance on promoting peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula and its major contributions to this effect.

The DPRK sticks to its stance on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and its position of peacefully resolving the nuclear issue through dialogue, Wang quoted Kim as saying.

According to Wang, the DPRK leader said his country held that the Joint Statement issued at the fourth round of the six-party talks in Beijing was positive and a hard-won result, and the DPRK will attend the fifth round of the six-party talks as scheduled.

On bilateral economic and trade cooperation, Wang said both China and the DPRK were satisfied with economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.

The Chinese leader said China would continue to encourage Chinese companies to conduct cooperative activities with DPRK enterprises in various forms and expand the scale of trade cooperation under the principle of mutual benefit and common development.

During Hu's visit, the two countries also signed an agreement on economic and trade cooperation.

Wang said the two leaders also briefed each other on their own countries' political, economic and social development.

He said Hu spoke highly of fresh achievements that the DPRK had made in building a strong socialist country, developing external relations and realizing national independence, peace and reunification under the leadership of the Workers' Party of Korea. Hu said China firmly supported the DPRK people in exploring a path of development suitable to their own domestic situation.

Kim also congratulated China on its achievements in building the socialist country with Chinese characteristic.

They agreed that China and DPRK are confronted with the common tasks of developing economy and improving people's living standards so that they would keep regular exchanges and learn from each other, which would help the two countries speed up the development of socialist construction.

During his stay in Pyongyang, Hu also met with Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK's Supreme People's Assembly.

Hu also visited the newly established Tae-an Friendship Glass Factory, which was built with aid from China. The factory, considered "a symbol of the DPRK-China friendship," has a designed daily production capacity of 300 tons of float-process glass.

This is Hu's first visit to Pyongyang as Chinese president. Kim Jong Il visited Beijing in 2000, 2001 and 2004.