BEIJING, September 13. /TASS/. The Chinese authorities continue to deepen friendly relations with the DPRK at a time when ties with Moscow are Pyongyang’s main priority, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.

"China and the DPRK are deepening interaction and cooperation on all tracks," she said at a news briefing in response to a Western journalist's question about how the Chinese authorities felt about the fact that North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un considered relations with Russia a top priority.

Mao asked everyone to remember that Kim’s visit to Russia "belongs to the sphere of Russian-Korean relations."

She also expressed satisfaction with the optimal situation in Beijing's interaction with Pyongyang, pointing to the successful contacts between them "in accordance with the consensus that was reached at the highest level."

"China and the DPRK keep working to ensure that their traditional good-neighborly relations show new and even better results in their development," Mao concluded.

Earlier, before the talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kim said that developing relations with Moscow was Pyongyang's top priority. He stressed that the meeting with the Russian leader should raise them to a new level.