SEOUL, South Korea — The North Korean leader Kim Jong-un offered a personal welcome to a senior envoy from Beijing, feting him and a visiting Chinese art troupe with a gala dinner, the North’s state-run news media reported on Sunday, as the estranged Communist allies continued efforts to mend ties.

Mr. Kim exchanged “deep thoughts” on international issues of concern to North Korea and China and vowed to improve bilateral relations during the meeting on Saturday with the senior Chinese diplomat, Song Tao, the Korean Central News Agency reported.

The report did not say if they discussed the North Korean dictator’s upcoming summits with President Trump and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea to defuse a standoff over the North’s development of nuclear bombs and ballistic missiles.

The warm reception was a reciprocal gesture. Last month, when Mr. Kim visited China to meet with President Xi Jinping on his first trip abroad as North Korea’s leader, it was Mr. Song who greeted him on the border and accompanied him in his special train to Beijing. That surprise visit by the secretive Mr. Kim was apparently an effort to improve ties with China, which had also cooled over the North’s weapons programs, ahead of the summits.