North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has vowed to cooperate with China to jointly “frustrate” the United States (US) and respond to hostility from Washington and its allies.
In a verbal message to Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Supreme Leader first congratulated Xi on the successful completion of the Beijing Winter Olympics, which ended on Sunday. Praising the Games, Kim said that the sporting event made a mark on history, state-owned Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported in a summary on Tuesday.
In a reference to the US, Kim further added that under Xi’s leadership, China had persevered in the face of an “unprecedentedly severe health crisis and the hostile forces’ manoeuvres.”
North Korea and China are “defending and advancing socialism” while “frustrating the undisguised hostile policy and military threat of the US and its satellite forces” by strengthening “strategic cooperation and unity,” Kim said.
Through a letter sent to China in January, North Korea had announced that it would not be participating in the Games due to COVID-19 and “hostile forces.” However, Pyongyang had stressed that it “would fully support” its “Chinese comrades.”
❤Thanks to all participants for making the #Beijing2022 #Olympics Winter Games so special and for making #Beijing the world's 1️⃣ #DualOlympicCity. You have inspired us to strive for excellence now and forever!🎇🎉
— Beijing 2022 (@Beijing2022) February 21, 2022
#BingDwenDwen #Volunteer #ClosingCeremony
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The North Korean delegation was suspended by the International Olympic Committee until the end of 2022 after the country failed to send a team to the Tokyo Olympics last year due to COVID-19 concerns.
The Beijing Olympics were diplomatically boycotted by the US, India, Lithuania, Canada, Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom due to human rights concerns regarding China’s aggressions in Xinjiang, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Tibet.
Meanwhile, China is North Korea’s longtime ally and the secretive regime’s largest economic benefactor. Bilateral ties between the two nations date back to the 1930s, when Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-un’s grandfather, led Korean guerrillas alongside Chinese soldiers to fight against Japanese colonial forces. In fact, last July, Xi and Kim professed their intention to strengthen bilateral ties while exchanging messages on the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Friendship between the two countries.
In contrast, North Korea has frequently criticised the US’ “hostile” foreign policy and has frequently spoken out against joint military exercises with South Korea, American troop presence on the Korean peninsula, and United Nations sanctions over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile development programme.
In response to the allegations, during a trilateral meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister (FM) Hayashi Yoshimasa and South Korean FM Chung Eui-yong in Honolulu two weeks ago, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted that Washington and its allies “held no hostile intent” towards North Korea.
While the three diplomats expressed concern over Pyongyang’s several ballistic missile launches this year and the “destabilising nature of these actions,” they ” also assured their “continued openness to meeting [North Korea] without preconditions.”