Chinese President Hu Jintao says China and North Korea will exert continuous efforts to maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.

Hu made the remark on Monday in Beijing when he met with Kim Yong-il, director of the International Department of North Korea’s ruling Workers' Party.

On behalf of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Hu congratulated North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for recently being named first secretary of the North's ruling party.

China’s Xinhua News Agency did not elaborate whether Hu and Kim discussed the North’s launch of a long-range rocket.