North Korea and China have reaffirmed their "traditional friendship" in a series of talks between their top military officials.
The talks in Beijing came hot on the heels of the regime's latest missile tests.
Experts say Pyeongyang is using the launches to show its discontent over the ongoing military drills between Seoul and Washington.
Lee Seung-jae reports.
On Saturday,.. Kim Su-gil,... the director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army held talks in Beijing with Zhang Youxia, the vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission.
According to China's state-run Xinhua News Agency,... the meeting highlighted the traditional friendship between North Korea and China.
It said China is willing to work with the North to "to strengthen communication, and promote cooperation and mutual support, so as to contribute to the consolidation and development of bilateral relations and regional peace and stability".
In response,... North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim Su-gil said Pyeongyang is also ready to "strengthen friendly exchanges between the two armed forces in various fields and mutual learning, and promote the relations between the two countries and the two armed forces to a higher level."
The high-level talks came after Kim Su-gil also held talks with Miao Hua,... the director of the political affairs department of China's Central Military Commission.
Experts say China may be why the North has been strongly responding to the scaled-down joint military exercises between Seoul and Washington.
I want to say carefully that North Korea's call for an end to the South Korea-U.S. combined military exercise is a result of coordination with China.
Other experts says the aggressive response to the drills could negatively affect future nuclear negotiations between Pyeongyang and Washington.
The two sides have yet to hold the working-level talks their leaders promised when they met at the DMZ in June.
Lee Seung-jae, Arirang News.