North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un has reassured Russia of “unconditional support” from Pyongyang to Moscow in its every effort to resolve the war in Ukraine, its state media reported on Sunday.
Mr Kim’s continued diplomatic help from North Korea came as he met with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, who was on a three-day visit to North Korea and described the two countries’ relations as “an invincible fighting brotherhood”.
The two leaders met in North Korea’s eastern coastal city of Wonsan on Saturday, where both countries held their high-level strategic dialogue, for the second time this year, pledging mutual cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang under a partnership treaty signed last year.
Russian media said Mr Lavrov also thanked the North Korean leader for the troops deployed to Russia.
The Russian foreign minister also passed on a message from Putin to Mr Kim, hoping for more direct contacts in future, reported Tass news agency.
Russia and North Korea have also signed a mutual defence treaty, which obliges them to immediately provide military assistance using “all means” if either is attacked – marking the strongest military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War.
“Kim Jong Un reaffirmed that the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) is ready to unconditionally support and encourage all the measures taken by the Russian leadership as regards the tackling of the root cause of the Ukrainian crisis,” KCNA said, using the acronym for North Korea’s formal name.
Mr Kim told the Russian foreign minister that the steps taken by the allies in response to radically evolving global geopolitics will contribute greatly to securing peace and security around the world, North Korea’s state news agency KCNA reported.
Mr Lavrov also met his North Korean counterpart Choe Son Hui in Wonsan on Saturday where the two signed a joint statement offering support to safeguard each other’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Alienated on the world stage and facing crunching financial sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has extended its diplomatic ties with the hermit kingdom North Korea and sought military assistance in soldiers and ammunition.
The ties between Moscow and Pyongyang have soared to their historic best during the last two years, with North Korea deploying more than 10,000 of its troops and arms to Russia to help with Vladimir Putin’s invasion of its smaller neighbour.
This comes as on Sunday, South Korean defence ministry’s intelligence arm reported to the parliament that North continued to supply artillery ammunition to Russia and has so far shipped about 12 million rounds.
In another display of their growing bilateral ties, North Korea last month agreed to dispatch 6,000 military engineers and builders for reconstruction in Russia’s Kursk region where Ukraine launched an audacious cross-border incursion in August.
