President Hu Jintao said Friday that China is ready to work with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to lift their traditional friendly and cooperative relationship to a new level.

Hu made the remark as he met with a DPRK delegation headed by Jang Song Thaek, chief of the central administrative department of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).

Jang, also a member of the WPK Political Bureau and vice-chairman of the National Defense Commission, is in Beijing to attend a meeting of the joint steering committee for developing and managing the Rason Economic and Trade Zone and the Hwanggumphyong and Wihwa Islands Economic Zone in the DPRK.

Hu said during the meeting that recent years have seen rapid growth in China-DPRK trade and economic cooperation and remarkable results in cooperation on trade and investment.

The president expressed a wish for both sides to fully use their own advantages by exploring new ways of cooperation, advancing key cooperation and development of the economic zones, and fostering new growth spots to benefit the people of the two countries.

China and the DPRK are friendly neighbors linked with waters and mountains, and their two peoples share a time-honored friendship, according to Hu.

Hu, also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), said the CPC and Chinese government have always adopted a strategic and long-term perspective on developing China-DPRK relations.

China is ready to work with the DPRK to earnestly implement important consensus reached between the two sides, maintain high-level contact, strengthen exchanges and cooperation and carry out close communication and cooperation on regional and international issues, Hu said.

Jang described the DPRK-China friendship as having been created and grown by the hands of older generations of leaders and having withstood the test of time. He said it is the staunch and unchangeable will of the WPK and DPRK government to carry on and expand this good work.

Jang added that the DPRK side is ready to work with the Chinese side to develop the two economic zones, further strengthening and growing the traditional friendship and cooperative relationship between the two countries and their ruling parties.