North Korea hosts Russian military delegation

Leader Kim Jong-un has stressed the country’s solidarity with Moscow in the conflict with Kiev

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has received a Russian military delegation led by Deputy Defense Minister Aleksey Krivoruchko in Pyongyang, state-run KCNA news agency reported on Friday.

The two sides discussed mutual security interests and military cooperation at the headquarters of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea in Pyongyang.

Kim passed on his greetings to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his people, expressing “invariable strong support for and firm solidarity with them over the special military operation in Ukraine,” KCNA wrote.

It’s important for the two nation’s armies to collaborate further, to “play an important part in defending regional and global peace and international justice,” the North Korean leader said. He also highlighted the importance of June’s Pyongyang summit, when the Russian president visited North Korea.

North Korea was one of the few countries that supported Moscow after the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022. Both the US and South Korea have accused North Korea of sending missiles and artillery ammunition to Russia. Both Pyongyang and Moscow have denied this. Any statements of “illegal military-technological cooperation with the DPRK” are “baseless,” the Russian Foreign Ministry stated earlier this year.

The security pact signed between Kim and Putin last month as a result of the June summit laid the groundwork for future bilateral ties in culture, tourism, trade, economics, and security. One of the security clauses says the two countries will come to each other’s defense in the event of either being attacked and in a state of war. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last month that “only those who plan aggression against the DPRK or the Russian Federation can object to this clause.”