The rapprochement between Pyongyang and Moscow continues. North Korea’s top diplomat said her country was “ready to receive” Russian President Vladimir Putin, the official KCNA news agency reported on Sunday.
North Korea is “ready to receive the Korean people’s closest friend with the greatest sincerity,” North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui told Vladimir Putin directly during a visit to Moscow, according to a statement from his office published by KCNA. She was in the Russian capital last week to meet Vladimir Putin and his counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
Putin’s “deep thanks”
Pyongyang and Moscow have recently strengthened their ties, including a rare visit by Kim Jong-un to the Russian Far East last September. At the end of this visit, the North Korean leader invited the Russian president to visit North Korea.
Vladimir Putin expressed “his desire to visit the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (official name of North Korea) soon”, specifies the press release relayed by KCNA. According to the same document, Russia conveyed to North Korea its “deep thanks […] for providing full support and solidarity for the position of the Russian government and people on the special military operation in Ukraine”, the name given by Russia to its war waged since February 2022 in the European country.
Senior Russian officials, including defense and foreign ministers, visited North Korea in 2023, raising fears of a potential arms deal. The West in any case accuses Pyongyang and Moscow of working together to support the Russian war effort in Ukraine and certain countries, such as the United States, claim that North Korea supplies weapons to Russia.