Kim Jong Un vows to strengthen ties with China and together 'frustrate' threats from US

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to strengthen ties with China and together ''frustrate'' threats and hostile policies from the United States and its allies.

In response, China's President Xi Jinping said Beijing is ready to work, together with the Korean side, to steadily develop the China-Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) relations of friendship and cooperation ... "under a new situation."

Xi made the remarks in response to Kim's congratulatory message for the Beijing Winter Olympics Games and a verbal message of congratulation soon after the successful closing of the games, according to KCNA.

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North Korean athletes were not eligible to compete under their national flag after the country failed to send a team to the Tokyo Summer Olympics last year, citing COVID-19 concerns.

China’s UN ambassador said Friday the US should come up with “more attractive and more practical” policies and actions to reduce tensions with North Korea and avoid a return to a “vicious circle” of confrontation, condemnation and sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile programme.

Zhang Jun said that the solution lies in direct dialogue and that if the Biden administration wants to see a breakthrough with Pyongyang “they should show more sincerity and flexibility.”

In rare remarks to reporters on Beijing’s views on the US-North Korean nuclear dispute, the Chinese ambassador said, “What I see is the key in solving this issue is already in the hands of the United States.”

Beijing is Pyongyang's most important ally and economic benefactor, their relationship was forged in the bloodshed of the Korean War in the 1950s.

North Korea is reeling economically from a self-imposed coronavirus blockade, and restarted cross-border trade with Beijing last month.

China accounts for more than 90 percent of the isolated country's bilateral trade.

Pyongyang is under multiple sets of international sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. But regardless, it has warned it could abandon its self-imposed moratorium and resume testing intercontinental ballistic missiles or nuclear weapons.

Some experts have warned that with the eyes of the world focussed on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, North Korea might take the opportunity to test-fire long-range missiles.

(With inputs from agencies)