Kim lauds Xi for ‘crushing’ virus

BANGKOK: North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un sent a personal message to Chinese President Xi Jinping to praise the Chinese president in crushing the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic in his sprawling country.

The report by North Korea’s state media followed an assessment by South Korea’s spy agency that the pandemic is hurting the North’s economy, already crippled by decades of policy failures and United States-led international sanctions over its nuclear weapons program.