North Korean President Kim Jong-Un met with senior Chinese officials late on Thursday in a bid to discuss closer ties with Beijing.

North Korean President Kim Jong-Un met with senior Chinese officials late on Thursday in a bid to discuss closer ties with Beijing.

Kim received a Chinese delegation led by Wang Jiarui, head of the Communist Party's international department, in Pyongyang, China's Xinhua agency and the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
The young leader, who took power after the death of his father Kim Jong-Il in December, asked Wang to convey his regards to Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Pyonyang aims to work with Beijing to bring "their friendship, established and nurtured by the older generations of leaders on both sides, to a higher level", Kim was reported as saying by Xinhua.

It was the North's "unswerving will" to carry on a friendship between the countries nurtured under his father's reign and to "deepen" their alliance, said Kim, according to the Chinese news agency

Wang in return said Beijing was "ready to work jointly with the DPRK side to maintain high-level contacts, strengthen party-to-party exchanges, and boost practical cooperation".
China, Pyongyang's sole major ally and biggest trade partner, is actively exploring investment opportunities in North Korea.