North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping take a walk together in Kumsusan Guest Palace, Pyongyang, in this picture carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), June 22, 2019. Yonhap

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has expressed his intention to develop friendly relations with Beijing in his reply letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping, the North's state media said Sunday.

Kim sent the letter on Sept. 15, six days after Xi congratulated North Korea on the 76th anniversary of its foundation, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

"It is the common desire of the peoples of the two countries to steadily consolidate and develop the DPRK-China friendship with a long historical tradition," Kim wrote in the letter.

DPRK refers to North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

In the message, Kim wished for the success of the Chinese people in their efforts to build "a modern socialist country" under Xi's leadership as this year marks the 75th founding anniversary of China.

The exchange of letters comes at a time when relations between North Korea and China, its longtime ally, have become relatively estranged, in contrast to Pyongyang's growing military and economic cooperation with Moscow amid the ongoing war in Ukraine. (Yonhap)