China has said it was seeking to deepen relations with North Korea in ‘various fields’, as Kim Jong Un reached Russia on Tuesday on his first overseastrip in four years.
"China-North Korea relations are improving," foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ningsaid.
"China and North Korea are implementing the important consensus achieved by the leaders of the two countries," Mao said.
They are ‘boosting exchanges and cooperation between the two countries in various fields, and pushing for bilateral relations to continue to achieve even greater development’, she added.
Kim arrived in Russia on Tuesday, Russian state news agency RiaNovosti reported.
He is set to meet President Vladimir Putin at an unspecified location in Russia's Far East region later this week, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
The visit is Kim's first abroad since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Beijing is North Korea's most important ally and economic benefactor, their relationship forged in the bloodshed of the Korean War in the 1950s.
