North Korean leader Kim Jong Un congratulated Chinese President Xi Jinping on the 105th founding anniversary of the CCP and vowed to strengthen ties, state media reported Wednesday.

SEOUL, July 1 (UPI) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un congratulated Chinese President Xi Jinping on the 105th founding anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party and pledged to further strengthen ties between Pyongyang and Beijing in a message published Wednesday by state media.

"There is no new China without Communist Party," Kim wrote in the message to Xi, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. "This is the truth the Chinese people have realized while advancing under its guidance for many years."

"It is the steadfast stand of our Party and government to steadily develop the DPRK-China friendly relations with long and historical roots and with socialism as their core," Kim added, using the official acronym for North Korea.

The message was the latest indication of warming ties between the longtime allies.

Kim traveled to Beijing in September for a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Last month, he welcomed Xi to Pyongyang for a two-day state visit that marked the Chinese president's first trip to North Korea in seven years and his first overseas trip of the year.

China remains North Korea's largest trading partner and principal economic lifeline, and has repeatedly faced accusations from the United States and U.N. experts of failing to enforce international sanctions against Pyongyang. The relationship appeared to lose some momentum in recent years, however, as North Korea deepened military cooperation with Russia following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Analysts say the connection with Russia has given Kim greater leverage in dealings with Beijing by reducing his dependence on China as Pyongyang's sole major patron.

At the Pyongyang summit, Xi cited the shifting geopolitical landscape and said the two countries should "open up a new future." He called for expanding cooperation in trade, agriculture, science and technology, healthcare and people-to-people exchanges following the full reopening of border crossings and the resumption of flights and passenger rail service.

Neither side publicly mentioned North Korea's nuclear weapons program or denuclearization in their official summit readouts. China has historically supported the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, but the issue has largely disappeared from Beijing's official statements in recent years as its strategic competition with the United States has intensified.

Kim described the summit in his message as "a historic occasion of deepening the comradely friendship and trust between us and reconfirming the unshakable will to more dynamically promote socialist construction in the two countries."

"I am ready to add shine to socialism, the common cause of the two parties, and continue to develop the DPRK-China friendly and cooperative relations, the common wealth of the peoples of the two countries, as required by the times, together with you," he wrote.