Russian President Vladimir Putin said he plans to lift relations with North Korea to a higher level and pledged his unwavering support, Pyongyang’s state media KCNA reported on Tuesday ahead of his planned visit to the country.
“We highly appreciate that the DPRK [North Korea] is firmly supporting the special military operations of Russia being conducted in Ukraine,” Putin wrote in an article reposted by state news outlet KCNA ahead of a rare visit by Russia’s leader to Pyongyang, adding the two countries were expanding their “reciprocal and equal cooperation”.
The trip “will put bilateral cooperation onto a higher level with our joint efforts and this will contribute to developing reciprocal and equal cooperation between Russia and the DPRK”, the Russian leader wrote, according to KCNA.
Last year, Kim made a rare overseas trip on his bulletproof train to meet Putin at a Russian spaceport.
North Korea has denied this, calling the claim “absurd” – even as it thanked Russia for using its UN veto in March to effectively end monitoring of sanctions violations, just as the UN experts were starting to investigate alleged arms transfers.
Moscow and Pyongyang want to leverage the perception that their ties are long term and increasingly integrated regarding defence
Kim has also ramped up weapons testing, including a flurry of launches this year of cruise missiles, which analysts said North Korea could be supplying to Russia for use in Ukraine.
A Pentagon report last month said Russia was using North Korean ballistic missiles in Ukraine, citing debris analysis.
Citing a Kremlin aide, Russian agencies said on Monday the two leaders will sign “important documents” during the visit.
This may include a “comprehensive strategic partnership treaty” which will outline future cooperation and deal with “security issues”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov was quoted as saying by state-run Russian news agencies.
But experts said that in reality, any new agreements would be focused on boosting the two countries’ defence cooperation.
“Moscow and Pyongyang want to leverage the perception that their ties are long term and increasingly integrated regarding defence,” Patrick Cronin, chairman for Asia-Pacific Security at the Hudson Institute, told the Yonhap new agency.
“They may also suggest this relationship is comprehensive. Certainly both countries are facing serious economic dilemmas. But regardless of the words used, current relations will focus on defence cooperation.”
Putin’s trip to the North is in reality “two strongmen with weak economies basking in the limelight as leaders to swap military technology and subvert the US-led order”, Cronin told Yonhap.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse