New Delhi: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent a message to Chinese President Xi Jinping to congratulate him on the Beijing Winter Olympics, Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Friday.
The North Korean leader called the Olympics a "great victory" for China and said that he wanted to improve relations between China and North Korea.
According to KCNA, Kim said in the letter: "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," a Reuters report said.
The North Korean leader said that he would "steadily develop the relations between the two parties and the two countries to a new high stage."
The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics will be held in Beijing on Friday.
On the same day, the United Nations (UN) Security Council will discuss a record month of North Korean missile tests, including the launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile on Sunday, the Reuters report said. This is the first test of that type since 2017.
Last month, China and Russia delayed a bid by the United States to impose UN sanctions on five North Koreans, diplomats said, according to the Reuters report.
North Korea, in a previous letter from sports authorities in January, said that it would not be attending the Games in neighbouring China. North Korea blamed "hostile forces" and Covid-19 risks.
The country was suspended from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) until the end of 2022 for failing to send a team to the Tokyo Summer Olympics last year, citing Covid-19 concerns. Hence, North Korean athletes are not eligible to compete under their national flag until the aforementioned period, the report said.
In December 2021, the United States announced that its government officials will boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics because of China's human rights record while leaving US athletes free to travel to Beijing to compete. The earlier letter from North Korea criticised the unspecified moves by the United States, the report said.
Ever Since China and North Korea signed a treaty in 1961, the former has been the latter's only major ally.
Moreover, North Korea has become more dependent than ever on Beijing for trade and other support due to the international sanctions imposed over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes, the report said.
North Korea resumed limited trade by train with China last month, after nearly two years of some of the world's strictest border closures in the pandemic. However, North Korea maintains near total lockdowns on other border travel.