North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wished Chinese President Xi Jinping "great success" after he was renamed secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.
In the note released by the KCNA news agency, Kim expressed "sincere congratulations" on his second term at the head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In the message Kim also "expressed the conviction that relations between the two parties and the two countries will develop in the interests of the peoples of the two countries".
For its part, the Chinese Foreign Ministry expressed its gratitude. "Since China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea are close neighbors, they have a tradition of friendly exchanges," spokesman Geng Shuang noted at a news conference.
Kim's very brief congratulatory message actually confirms the cold relations between the two countries and conflicts with the much more extended greetings sent five years ago when Xi came to power; in that message Kim spoke of China and North Korea as two "friendly and neighboring nations, connected by the same mountain and the same rivers" and of bilateral relations as "a precious common wealth due to the wisdom and efforts of the leaders of the older generations" .
The two leaders, despite their closeness, never met. Beijing is reluctant to fully apply the sanctions decided in the UN for North Korean missile and nuclear programs, because it fears the collapse of the regime. However, he did not hide his irritation and in the last year he has begun to apply sanctions more rigorously.