Pyongyang, October 16 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), received a reply message from Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and president of the People's Republic of China (PRC), on October 13. Xi, in the message, expressed his heartfelt thanks to the General Secretary Kim Jong Un for having sent a message of warm and sincere greeting to him on the occasion of the 73rd founding anniversary of the PRC. He said this year marks the 73rd founding anniversary of new China, adding that during the past 73 years, the people of several nations of China have achieved world-startling development and success while uniting and redoubling their efforts and made a great leap forward as a result of rising up and being prosperous under the leadership of the CPC. He noted that the CPC will convene its 20th congress in a few days. He said that the congress is a very important one to be convened at a crucial time in which the CPC and different nations of China have made a new journey of comprehensively building a modern socialist country and advanced towards the second target of the one-hundred-year journey and socialism with the Chinese characteristics will make a new journey and steadily open up a fresh chapter. He said that the two countries, the PRC and the DPRK, are linked by the same mountains and rivers, and the traditional friendship is getting more solid as the days go by. Xi said that a serious and complicated change has been made in the international and regional situation and that the importance of promoting the strategic communication between China and the DPRK and boosting unity and cooperation between them has been characterized. He expressed readiness to make positive efforts to give impetus to making the traditional friendly and cooperative relations between China and the DPRK grow stronger along with the times together with Kim Jong Un under a new situation and make a great contribution to providing two countries and their people with greater happiness and defending peace and stability in the region and the rest of the world. Xi said that he was delighted over the fact that the Korean people have steadily achieved fresh achievements in the economic development and improvement of the people's standard of living in recent years under the leadership of the WPK headed by General Secretary Kim Jong Un. He wished the fraternal Korean people new and bigger success in accomplishing the cause of building socialism. He also wished Kim Jong Un good health and smoothness in his work, the DPRK prosperity and the Korean people happiness and wellbeing.