The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met with members of a Chinese art troupe visiting Pyongyang for cultural performances and promised to do her best to make sure their stay is as comfortable as possible, the North's state media said Saturday.

The art troupe, led by Song Tao, head of the international department at the Central Committee of the Communist Party, arrived in Pyongyang on Friday in a sign of improving relations between the two countries since leader Kim's visit to China last month.

 

Kim Yo-jong, first vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, called at the lodgings of the Chinese art troupe, welcomed their visit, exchanged greetings with Song and had a talk with him in an amicable atmosphere, the North's Korean Central News Agency said.

"She said that we will make the greatest sincerity so that the artistes of the fraternal Chinese people would not feel the slightest inconvenience during their stay in Pyongyang, and wished the Chinese comrades would spend a pleasant time and the performing activities of the art troupe would be given with success," KCNA said.

KCNA also reported that the International Department of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party hosted a reception for the art troupe at the Koryo Hotel on Friday evening.

Ri Su-yong, vice-chairman of the WPK Central Committee, said during the reception that the art troupe's visit "is of weighty significance in carrying forward and developing the DPRK-China friendship" as it came at a time when relations between the two countries "enter into a fresh high phase" in the wake of leader Kim's visit to China.

Song said in response that the art troupe's visit is the "first footstep for carrying out the important agreement reached" between the leaders of the two countries and for promoting the development of friendly China-DPRK relations, according to KCNA. (Yonhap)