A high-ranking Chinese military delegation arrived in North Korea Saturday on "an official goodwill visit," the North's media said.
The Chinese delegation, led by Col. Gen. Guo Boxiong, vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission, was greeted at the airport by Pak Jae-gyong, vice-minister of the North's People's Armed Forces, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a report, monitored in Seoul.
China's Xinhua News Agency, also covering the visitors, said the delegation was on a four-day visit to attend activities to commemorate the 60th anniversary Monday of China's entry into the 1950-53 Korean War.
Geng Yangsheng, a spokesman for the ministry of national defense in China, told Xinhua that the delegation will meet with North Korean national and military leaders "to exchange opinions on issues of common concern."
Neither News Agencies' said whether the Chinese visitors would meet with Kim Jong-un, third son of North Korean leader Kim Jong -il who is certain to succeed his father as the country's next leader.
He was given the rank of army general and a key party post late last month.
China is North Korea's only remaining major communist ally.
Analysts believe that the two countries have recently been strengthening their ties. Kim Jong-il visited China in late August for his second trip there this year, while China congratulated North Korea on the emergence of a new ruling party leadership.
In a separate report on Saturday, KCNA also quoted Zhou Yongkang, a member of the powerful Politburo Standing Committee in Beijing, as declaring that "the friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries have grown stronger with each passing day."
Zhou attended a massive military parade in Pyongyang earlier this month that marked the 65th founding anniversary of the North's ruling Workers' Party.