North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has sent a congratulatory message to China’s Xi Jinping on his re-election as president, state-run media said Sunday, in a
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has sent a congratulatory message to China’s Xi Jinping on his re-election as president, state-run media said Sunday, in a rare direct message between the two Asian leaders.
Sunday’s statement run by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim had “warmly congratulated” Xi in a message sent Saturday that expressed the North Korean leader’s hopes that China will make even greater achievements “with Xi Jinping at the core.”
“Expressing belief that the bilateral relations would develop in the common interests of the peoples of the two countries, the message wished the Chinese president big success in his responsible work,” KCNA quoted Kim as saying in the message.
Kim has yet to meet Xi — or any other foreign leader — since assuming power in 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il.
China supported North Korea during the 1950-1953 Korean War, and has since regarded it as a strategic buffer against South Korea, where the U. S. military stations some 28,500 troops. It has long wielded influence as its neighbor’s main economic lifeline.
