China praised North Korea’s resilience in the face of US pressure and pledged deeper cooperation during a visit by foreign minister Wang Yi, North Korean state media reported on Friday.

Mr Wang said the North Korean people had achieved progress in socialist development under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, despite what he described as increasing isolation and pressure from the United States and its allies, according to KCNA.

China’s state news agency Xinhua did not mention those remarks in its report on a banquet hosted by North Korean foreign minister Choe Son Hui.

The visit, Mr Wang’s first to Pyongyang in six years, comes around a month before a planned trip to China by US President Donald Trump.

China remains North Korea’s key ally, and both sides have recently resumed rail and air links suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic.

State media said the two countries agreed to expand cooperation and exchanges, without providing details, building on a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Mr Kim in Beijing last September.

China and North Korea share long-standing ties dating back to the Korean War (1950–1953), when troops of China’s People’s Liberation Army fought alongside communist North Korea.

To this day, North Korea remains the only country to which China has pledged military support under a mutual defence agreement.

(dpa/NAN)