President Xi Jinping expressed on Tuesday China's readiness to enhance strategic communication and maintain close exchanges and cooperation with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, as he extended congratulations to Kim Jong-un, the top leader of the DPRK, on the neighboring country's 77th founding anniversary.

In a congratulatory message to Kim, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the DPRK, Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that Beijing will join hands with Pyongyang to promote China-DPRK friendship and the socialist cause of the two countries, in order to make greater contributions to peace and development in the region and the world at large.

The message came just days after Kim visited Beijing in early September to attend commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) and the World Anti-Fascist War.

The trip marked Kim's first visit to China in six years. During the DPRK leader's stay in Beijing, Xi and Kim pledged their commitment to China-DPRK friendship and willingness to promote practical cooperation.

Noting that China and the DPRK are traditional friendly neighbors linked by mountains and rivers, Xi reaffirmed in Tuesday's message that it has always been the steadfast strategic guideline for the CPC and the Chinese government to maintain, consolidate and develop well the China-DPRK ties.

He said that when he met with Kim in Beijing, the two sides jointly planned a blueprint for the development of relations between the two parties and the two countries.

Xi spoke highly of the continuous development that the DPRK has made in all of its socialist undertakings since its founding, saying that the WPK has united and led the people in the DPRK to forge ahead unremittingly over the past 77 years.

In recent years, under the leadership of the WPK headed by Kim, the people in the DPRK have striven hard to fulfill the goals and tasks set out at the Eighth Congress of the WPK, and have achieved many gratifying accomplishments, Xi said.

Xi expressed his belief that the people in the DPRK will greet the Ninth Congress of the WPK with high spirits and outstanding achievements, and open a new chapter in the cause of building DPRK-style socialism.

The Eighth Congress of the WPK was held in Pyongyang in 2021. In June, the WPK unanimously approved at a plenary meeting the decision on convening its Ninth Congress.