N. Korea's Kim pledges full support for China in letter to Xi: KCNA

SEOUL, Oct. 1 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un reaffirmed his country's "invariable" support for China in a message to Chinese President Xi Jinping, the North's official media reported Thursday.

"The Supreme Leader (Kim) also stressed in the message that he and the party and the people of the DPRK will invariably stand by the general secretary (Xi), the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese people in the struggle for accomplishing the joint cause of defending and glorifying socialism gained at the cost of blood," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The message, dated Oct. 1, was designed to congratulate the Chinese leader on the 71th founding anniversary of China and its communist party, according to the KCNA.

"The message said the Chinese people have registered eye-opening successes in the socialist construction under the sagacious guidance of the CPC for the past 71 years after the birth of new China," it said.

Kim's message comes amid growing tension between the United States and China.

The United States is increasingly pointing its fingers at what it calls aggressive and malign practices by China while vowing to push back aggressions from China's communist party in all domains.

"The message said that the hostile forces' ever-escalating smears and pressure racket can not bring to collapse the Chinese people's trust in the general secretary and the CPC, deny the successes achieved by socialist China and block the advance of the Chinese people along the road chosen by them," the KCNA reported.

"The Supreme Leader in the message expressed his will to strive, together with the general secretary, to ceaselessly consolidate and develop the invincible DPRK-China friendship which has entered a new historical period," it added.
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