North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui has met with a visiting senior Chinese diplomat in Pyongyang, the regime’s state media reported Saturday, as the North appears to be seeking to strengthen ties with Beijing amid its stepped-up cooperation with Russia.

On Friday, Choe met with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong, who is visiting North Korea this week, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a brief dispatch.

Noting that this year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the North and China, the two sides agreed to “continue to strengthen tactical cooperation and keep pace with each other to defend their common core interests,” the KCNA said.

The talks took place in “a comradely and friendly atmosphere,” it added.

Their meeting came after Choe returned from her visit to Russia this week, during which she met with President Vladimir Putin and her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in a show of deepening bilateral ties.

The North is stepping up military cooperation with Russia, while ratcheting up tensions with South Korea, which it has branded as an “invariable primary foe.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been seeking to strengthen solidarity with China and Russia vis-a-vis the strengthening of security cooperation among South Korea, the United States and Japan.

China is the North’s traditional ally and key economic benefactor.

Sun’s visit to Pyongyang is seen as a reciprocal trip after the North’s Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong-ho visited China last month.

Pak and Sun also held bilateral talks Thursday.

Present at Friday’s meeting were Pak and Wang Yajun, Chinese ambassador to Pyongyang, the KCNA said. (Yonhap).