Chinese President Xi Jinping has sent a message to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, expressing a willingness to move relations between the two countries further forward and to promote regional and global peace, Pyongyang's state media reported Sunday.

Xi sent the message on Wednesday in response to a message that Kim had earlier sent on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of China's founding in 1949, according to the North's Korean Central News Agency.

"China and the DPRK are linked by the same mountain and rivers, and the traditional friendship between the two countries is growing stronger with the passage of time," Xi said in the message, referring to the acronym of the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"I am willing to make greater contributions, together with you, Comrade General Secretary, to leading the traditional China-DPRK friendly and cooperative relations to sustainable and stable development, steadily promoting the well-being of the peoples of the two countries and safeguarding regional and global peace, stability, development and prosperity," he said. (Yonhap)