Kim's Olympic message to Xi on NKorean TV

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has congratulated China for holding the Winter Olympics, Pyongyang's state media reported Friday. An unnamed newsreader on state television read out the text of a letter from Kim to China's President Xi Jinping at the start of Friday's first news bulletin.

No images of either leader, nor of the letter, were shown. Kim's letter noted that China is staging the games "despite the worldwide health crisis" and called this "another great victory won by socialist China". North Korea and China are traditional allies, but their relationship has had its ups and downs over the decades. Ties were strained for several years recently, until Kim Jong Un visited China in 2018. Since then, the relationship has been back on track.