DPRK to learn from China's opening-up

A high-level delegation from Pyongyang is visiting China, and the trip is expected to help the visitors better understand China's domestic economic buildup and achievements reached through its reform and opening-up, Beijing said on Tuesday.

The visitors from the Workers' Party of Korea, led by Pak Thae-song, a member of the Political Bureau and vice-chairman of its Central Committee, arrived in Beijing on Monday, the Korean Central News Agency reported on Tuesday.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the trip to China was made at the invitation by the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

The tour serves as a concrete measure for bringing to life the consensus of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, and Kim Jong-un, top leader of the DPRK, Lu said.

The trip will "boost exchanges of experience regarding governance between the two parties", Lu said at a daily news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.

When Kim made his first trip to China in March, he and Xi agreed to boost bilateral cooperation, exchanges and learning from each other.

In April, the Third Plenary Meeting of the Seventh Workers' Party of Korea Central Committee proposed concentrating all efforts on socialist economic construction while announcing the plan to halt nuclear and intercontinental missile tests and dismantle its northern nuclear testing facility.

This month, during Kim's second China trip, Xi told Kim that China supports the DPRK's shifting its strategic focus to economic buildup and supports DPRK comrades in taking their own development path that meets the country's national conditions.

Da Zhigang, a researcher of northeast Asian studies at the Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, said the lessons, wisdom and cooperative programs offered by China effectively address the DPRK's need to boost its domestic economic buildup.

The reinforced bilateral economic exchanges and cooperation will help the DPRK further integrate into Northeast Asia regional economic cooperation as well as other bilateral or multilateral cooperation, Da said.

The exchanges of experience will also echo efforts made by all parties concerned, particularly the DPRK, in achieving denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Da added.