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Russian President Vladimir Putin is considering visiting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang soon, North Korea’s state news agency KCNA reported on Sunday, as the two countries seek closer ties against a backdrop of increasing pressure from the West.
Putin “expressed his willingness to visit [North Korea] at an early date,” the outlet reported, citing a statement from North Korea’s foreign ministry. Putin spoke with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui in a “courtesy call” while she was in Moscow last week, according to the report. Choe also met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Nobak during her visit.
Putin hasn’t visited Pyongyang since 2000, when the Russian leader went for discussions with the current North Korean leader’s father, Kim Jong Il.
Last week’s trip to Moscow by a North Korean delegation led by Foreign Minister Choe was a follow-up to the Russia-North Korea summit last September. It was intended to further the “friendship and cooperation” between the two countries “which have been consolidated in all trials and storms of history,” according to the North Korean ministry’s statement.
Both sides said they were concerned by the “negative influence of the U.S. and its allied forces’ irresponsible and unjust provocative acts,” threatening the sovereignty of North Korea, according to the statement.
Moscow expressed gratefulness for “extending full support and solidarity to the stand of the Russian government and people on the special military operation in Ukraine,” it said, using the term Putin calls Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Last year, POLITICO reported that North Korea has been shipping vast amounts of ammunition to Russia, delivering a million rounds of artillery.
“The world has turned its back on Russia, forcing Putin into the humiliation of going cap in hand to North Korea to keep his illegal invasion going,” U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said earlier this month. “In doing so, Russia has broken multiple [United Nations] resolutions and put the security of another world region at risk. This must stop now,” Shapps warned.
