A key official of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party held talks on Tuesday with the visiting special envoy of Cuban President Raul Castro to boost their cooperative relations, the North's Central TV Station reported Wednesday.

According to the state broadcaster, Choe Ryong-hae, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, met with Cuban Vice President Salvador Valdes Mesa and his party at the Mansudae Assembly Hall. The delegation arrived in Pyongyang earlier in the day after a visit to China.

Present at the meeting were Ri Chang-gun, vice department director of the WPK in charge of international affairs; Sin Hong-chol, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs; Ri Kwang-gun, vice-minister of External Economic Relations; and other officials.

Earlier in the day, the ruling party's Central Committee gave a reception in honor of the Cuban delegation, where core North Korean officials in charge of diplomatic affairs were present, according to a report by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

Ri Su-yong, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the WPK, said at the reception that North Korea will make positive efforts to develop the traditional relations of friendship and cooperation with the Cuban party and people.

The KCNA said, "Ri wholeheartedly wished the Cuban party and people greater successes in the drive to defend socialism, the gains of revolution, and implement the decision of the Seventh Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba under the leadership of Raul Castro."

Valdes Mesa said in a speech that Cuba would develop relations with the fraternal Korean people in the future, too.

North Korea and Cuba have close diplomatic ties dating back to 1960.

Still, attention is focused on whether the Cuban envoy will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. North Korea watchers in Seoul said there is a high possibility of the meeting in Pyongyang, given the fact that Valdes Mesa met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Monday.

If Kim meets with the Cuban vice president, it will mark his first known contact with a foreign political leader since October last year when he held talks with the Communist Party of China's fifth-ranked leader, Liu Yunshan.

Kim has yet to travel overseas or meet any world leaders since inheriting power from his father, Kim Jong-il, in late 2011.

South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se visited Cuba in early June with the aim of strengthening bilateral relations following last year's normalization of ties between Washington and Havana.

Last month, North Korea's Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of the WPK Central Committee, visited Cuba and conveyed greetings and a personal letter from Kim Jong-un to Raul Castro.

Earlier this month North Korean party officials visited Vietnam and Laos apparently as part of the North's diplomatic efforts to break the international sanctions over its nuclear and missile tests.

Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul, said that North Korea has no other way but to make desperate efforts to maintain close relations with traditionally friendly countries to break from its present military and diplomatic isolation. (Yonhap)