Newly empowered Chinese President Xi Jinping has reached out to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in an apparent bid to promote stable ties with the isolated country days ahead of a visit to the region by U.S. President Donald Trump, the official Korean Central News Agency said Thursday.
Xi was replying to a congratulatory message from Kim on the successful conclusion of the Chinese Communist Party's twice-a-decade congress last week, where the Chinese leader was widely seen as cementing his grip on power.
"I wish that under the new situation the Chinese side would make efforts with the DPRK side to promote the relations between the two parties and the two countries to sustainable soundness and stable development and thus make a positive contribution to ... defending regional peace and stability and common prosperity," Xi wrote in the message, dated Wednesday, according to the KCNA dispatch.
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