North Korea’s top diplomat on Monday visited the Kremlin for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which followed last month’s meeting between the nations’ leaders.
The show of deepening ties came as US President Donald Trump visits Asia.
In a separate meeting with her Russian counterpart, North Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Choe Son-hui confirmed North Korea’s “unwavering understanding and support” for Putin’s war against Ukraine, North Korean state media said yesterday.
Photo: Sputnik / Vyacheslav Prokofyev via Reuters
North Korea has sent thousands of troops and large quantities of military equipment to Russia to support its war effort, a growing alignment that has fueled leader Kim Jong-un’s increasingly assertive foreign policy as he seeks to break out of isolation and position his nation as part of a united front against the US-led West.
North Korea has shunned any form of talks with Washington and Seoul since Kim’s high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with Trump fell apart in 2019 during the US president’s first term.
Putin and Kim met in Beijing in September after attending a major military parade in the heart of the Chinese capital that marked the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Putin on Monday asked Choe to convey his best wishes to Kim, adding that they had a very warm meeting, according to televised remarks at the start of the talks.
Before attending the Kremlin meeting with Putin, Choe held talks with Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov, who again hailed North Korean troops for fighting alongside the Russian military in the Kursk region after a surprise Ukrainian incursion.
“These heroic deeds will, of course, further strengthen the bonds of friendship and historical unity in our shared struggle for justice,” Lavrov said.
Choe noted “considerable progress” in relations between the two nations, and confirmed Pyongyang’s support for “all measures” taken by Russia to defend its security interests and “eliminate the root cause” of its conflict with Ukraine, Russian and North Korean media reported.
The Korean Central News Agency said that Russian officials, during their meeting with Choe, expressed Moscow’s support for all of Pyongyang’s efforts to “firmly defend its current status, security interests and sovereign rights.”
The two sides discussed expanding high-level exchanges and cooperation, and coordinating their diplomacy on unspecified “major issues of mutual concern,” the Korean Central News Agency said.
According to South Korean assessments, North Korea has sent about 15,000 troops to Russia since the fall last year and also supplied large quantities of military equipment, including artillery and ballistic missiles, to support Moscow’s military action in Ukraine.
Kim has also agreed to send thousands of military construction workers and deminers to Russia’s Kursk region.
Kim has focused on expanding the capabilities of his nuclear-armed military since his diplomacy with Trump collapsed in 2019 due to disagreements over US-led economic sanctions.
REVENGE: Trump said he had the support of the Syrian government for the strikes, which took place in response to an Islamic State attack on US soldiers last week The US launched large-scale airstrikes on more than 70 targets across Syria, the Pentagon said on Friday, fulfilling US President Donald Trump’s vow to strike back after the killing of two US soldiers. “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote on social media. “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue.” The US Central Command said that fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery targeted ISIS infrastructure and weapon sites. “All terrorists who are evil enough to attack Americans are hereby warned
Seven wild Asiatic elephants were killed and a calf was injured when a high-speed passenger train collided with a herd crossing the tracks in India’s northeastern state of Assam early yesterday, local authorities said. The train driver spotted the herd of about 100 elephants and used the emergency brakes, but the train still hit some of the animals, Indian Railways spokesman Kapinjal Kishore Sharma told reporters. Five train coaches and the engine derailed following the impact, but there were no human casualties, Sharma said. Veterinarians carried out autopsies on the dead elephants, which were to be buried later in the day. The accident site
‘POLITICAL LOYALTY’: The move breaks with decades of precedent among US administrations, which have tended to leave career ambassadors in their posts US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered dozens of US ambassadors to step down, people familiar with the matter said, a precedent-breaking recall that would leave embassies abroad without US Senate-confirmed leadership. The envoys, career diplomats who were almost all named to their jobs under former US president Joe Biden, were told over the phone in the past few days they needed to depart in the next few weeks, the people said. They would not be fired, but finding new roles would be a challenge given that many are far along in their careers and opportunities for senior diplomats can
RUSHED: The US pushed for the October deal to be ready for a ceremony with Trump, but sometimes it takes time to create an agreement that can hold, a Thai official said Defense officials from Thailand and Cambodia are to meet tomorrow to discuss the possibility of resuming a ceasefire between the two countries, Thailand’s top diplomat said yesterday, as border fighting entered a third week. A ceasefire agreement in October was rushed to ensure it could be witnessed by US President Donald Trump and lacked sufficient details to ensure the deal to end the armed conflict would hold, Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs Sihasak Phuangketkeow said after an ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur. The two countries agreed to hold talks using their General Border Committee, an established bilateral mechanism, with Thailand
RSS