North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent a message to Chinese President Xi
Jinping to congratulate him on hosting the Beijing Winter Olympics as a
major victory.
"The successful opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics despite the worldwide
health crisis and unprecedented severe circumstances is another great
victory won by socialist China," Kim said in a letter to Xi, as quoted by
KCNA and Reuters reports Friday (4 /2).
Kim said he would "continue to develop relations between the two sides and
the two countries to a new high level".
According to Kim, the relationship between the two countries "has been glued
into an invincible strategic relationship that will never be broken by
anything in the struggle to defend and advance common goals".
The 2022 Winter Olympics will open in Beijing on Friday (4/2) evening.
The United Nations Security Council will on the same day discuss North
Korea's missile tests, including Sunday's launch of an intermediate-range
ballistic missile, the first test of its kind since 2017.
In an earlier letter from sports authorities in January, North Korea said it
would not attend the Olympics in China, blaming "enemy forces" and the risk
of Covid-19.
North Korean athletes are ineligible to compete under their national flag
after the country was suspended by the International Olympic Committee (IOC)
until the end of 2022.
North Korea did not send a team to last year's Tokyo Summer Olympics, citing
concerns about the Covid-19 pandemic. .
