North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent a congratulatory message to the teaching staff and students of a Korean university in Japan, the country's state-run media said Sunday.

The message sent to Korea University in Tokyo, run by the General Association of Korean Residents, or Chongryon, was on the occasion of the school marking its 60th year of educating students, the Korean Central News Agency  said.

Chongryon is a pro-North Korean group that has maintained close ties with the communist regime.

The message said that the six decade-long history of the university is "one of noblest compatriotism and warmest love for the nation shown by the peerlessly great men of Mt. Paektu for the education of the rising generation of the Chongryon."

Mt. Paektu is the highest peak in North Korea and often used to refer to the country as a whole and the bloodline of its leadership made up of the Kim family.

The KCNA report picked up in Seoul also said North Korea's founder Kim Il-sung, who is the grandfather of the incumbent leader, "showed all sorts of loving care and benevolence for the development of Chongryon and the university till the last moments of his life," pointing out that Pyongyang supported the building of the school in a time of postwar rehabilitation and construction.

The report then said that the university has made a positive contribution to the building of Chongryon organization and strengthening of the movement of Koreans in Japan as the highest seat of national education, center of scientific research.

The school, set up in April 1956, is a four-year university and the only overseas university operated by North Korea. (Yonhap)