North Korean leader Kim Jong-un vowed to “unconditionally support” Russia in its war in Ukraine and said he expected Moscow to emerge victorious, Pyongyang’s state media reported yesterday.
North Korea has become one of Moscow’s main allies during its more than three-year Ukraine offensive, sending thousands of troops and container-loads of weapons to help the Kremlin oust Ukrainian forces from Russia’s Kursk border region.
Meeting top Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday, Kim said that Pyongyang would “unconditionally support the stand of Russia and its foreign policies in all the crucial international political issues including the Ukrainian issue,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
Korean Central News Agency via EPA-EFE
Kim “expressed expectation and conviction that Russia would, as ever, surely win victory in the sacred cause of justice,” KCNA said.
The two sides agreed to “continue to dynamically expand” relations, the state news agency reported.
Russia and North Korea signed a sweeping military deal last year, including a mutual defense clause, during a rare visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to North Korea.
Shoigu hailed the deal as “fully meeting the interests of both countries” during a visit in March.
About 600 North Korean soldiers have been killed and thousands more wounded fighting for Russia, Sergei Shoigu South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun, citing the country’s intelligence service.
South Korea has also accused North Korea of sending significant volumes of weapons, including missiles, to help Russia’s war effort.
While Russia and North Korea are deepening ties, “prospects for restoring inter-Korean ties grow increasingly remote,” said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University.
Shoigu’s visit, his second in three months, also came just days after Ukraine launched a major drone strike on Russia, which “underscores the urgency of high-level coordination on security matters.”
“From Pyongyang’s perspective, active participation in countering drone threats could serve as a stepping stone to enhance its capabilities in modern warfare — suggesting North Korea may take a more assertive role in military cooperation with Russia,” Lim said.
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