N. Korean envoy holds 3rd high-level meeting in China

SEOUL, Nov. 7 (Yonhap) -- A senior North Korean ruling party official has met his counterpart in Beijing, the North's state media said Saturday, the latest in a series of high-level meetings during his visit this week.

Kim Song-nam, a Political Bureau member and Central Committee secretary of North Korea's Workers' Party of Korea (WPA), met Liu Haixing, head of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) Central Committee's International Liaison Department, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse on Friday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

It was Kim's third meeting with a senior Chinese official since he arrived Tuesday, as the two countries are seeking to deepen ties and expand cooperation after Chinese President Xi Jinping's June summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang.

Kim briefed Liu on Pyongyang's "successes" in party-building work and said the whole country has been striving to meet the targets of the five-year plan adopted at the party's ninth congress in February.

For his part, Liu called the visit significant for strengthening relations, according to the report.

The two sides reaffirmed support for each other's policies and pledged deeper cooperation.

Following the meeting, China hosted a reception for the North Korean delegation.

In a separate dispatch, the KCNA said Kim also met Cai Qi, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau and director of its General Office, on Friday.

At the meeting, Kim reaffirmed Pyongyang's commitment to closer ties.

For his part, Cai said Xi's June visit had given the relationship "fresh significance of the times" and that China's commitment to friendship with North Korea would not change "no matter the ever-changing international situation."

Kim began his high-level meetings Thursday with Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

His delegation arrived in Beijing as the two countries seek to shore up cooperation after relations appeared to cool amid North Korea's deepening alignment with Russia over the war in Ukraine.