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In this photo released by North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping on June 21, 2019, in Pyongyang. (Yonhap News)

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Chinese President Xi Jinping exchanged personal letters on Sunday to mark the 60th anniversary of the two countries’ Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, North Korea’s state-run newspaper the Rodong Sinmun said.

“The DPRK-China Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance is displaying its stronger vitality in defending and propelling the socialist cause of the two countries and ensuring peace and stability in Asia and the rest of the world now that the hostile forces [have] become more desperate in their challenge and obstructive moves,” Kim wrote in his letter.

DPRK is the acronym for North Korea’s official name.

“It is the fixed [stance] of the [Workers’ Party of Korea] and the DPRK government to ceaselessly develop [. . .] friendly and cooperative relations between the DPRK and China,” Kim wrote, adding that the party and the government would “firmly join hands with the [Communist Party of China] and the government and people of China in the sacred struggle [of] building socialism and communism in the future, too.”

In his message to Kim, Xi said that “major changes are rapidly taking place globally of a kind we have not witnessed in a century.”

“We are committed to bringing greater happiness to our two countries and their people by working consistently to usher our relationship of friendship and cooperation to a new stage, working with you to strengthen strategic communication and set the right direction for advancement in China-DPRK relations,” he wrote.

Xi also stressed China’s “strong support for the DPRK’s efforts to advance its economy and its people’s lives and its forceful pursuit of the great endeavor of socialist construction.”

Regarding the DPRK-China Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, Xi wrote that it was an “important legal cornerstone for strengthening the militant goodwill formed in blood by our two countries’ people, and driving goodwill and cooperation between our two countries in the long term.”

But in contrast with previous correspondence, Xi’s letter did not make reference to “adhering to plans for a political resolution of peninsula issues,” as in a Jan. 11 cable, or China’s being “prepared to make a new proactive contribution the region’s peace, stability, development, and prosperity,” as in a message shared verbally on March 22.

Reports in the North Korean and Chinese media suggested there were no visits exchanged between the two sides’ senior-level officials for the treaty’s 60th anniversary. This was believed to reflect the current situation with long-term border closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer

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