Chinese, DPRK premiers hold talks on plan to boost ties

-- Increasing personnel and cultural exchanges and promoting friendship and bilateral ties through the "China-DPRK Friendship Year".

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (R) meets with his counterpart  of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim  Yong Il at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital  of China, March 18, 2009. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

-- Strengthening coordination on major international and regional issues and pushing the six-party talks forward. China would like to continue its constructive role in realizing denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

"The Communist Party of China and the government have all along viewed the relationship with the DPRK from a strategic perspective," Wen said.

He pledged China would make joint efforts with the DPRK to expand mutually beneficial cooperation to better serve the peoples under the principle of "inheriting tradition, aiming at the future, good-neighborly and friendly relations, and enhancing cooperation."