North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said his country's ties with China, "sealed in blood," will further develop for generations to come as he marked the anniversary of the armistice that halted the 1950-53 Korean War, state media said Friday.

On Thursday, Kim visited the Friendship Tower in Pyongyang and paid tribute to the fallen Chinese soldiers that fought in the war, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

The Korean War armistice was signed July 27, 1953, a little over three years after the North invaded the South, backed by China and the then Soviet Union. Calling the conflict the Great Fatherland Liberation War, the North has designated the anniversary as Victory Day.

Kim stressed that the "brilliant combat merits and feats of the Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV) officers and men, obviously recorded in the history of the great victory in the Fatherland Liberation War, would be immortal," according to the KCNA.

He added that the North's friendship with China, "sealed in blood and further cemented in all sorts of trying ordeals of history, would be carried forward and developed generation after generation along with the dynamic advance of the socialist cause."

Top officials accompanied Kim, including Jo Yong-won, secretary for Organizational Affairs of the ruling party's Central Committee, and Pak Jong-chon, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission.

North Korea has recently stressed its friendly ties with China amid a prolonged deadlock in nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington and an escalating Sino-U.S. rivalry.

Meanwhile, Kim also separately held photo sessions with war veterans that participated in a national conference earlier this week and with lecturers responsible for the ideological education of the youth regarding the war, the KCNA said.

Photos released by the KCNA show Kim surrounded by war veterans not wearing face masks at the session in an apparent show of confidence over the COVID-19 pandemic.

During his photo session with the lecturers, he urged them to prepare the people, service personnel, youth and students as "resolute revolutionaries." (Yonhap)