Putin visiting North Korea for first time in 24 years

Russian President Vladimir Putin is visiting North Korea in his first visit in 24 years, underlining the deepening ties between the two nuclear-armed states.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un extended an invitation to Putin when Kim visited Russia’s east in September for the first talks between the two men since 2019.

Putin last visited Pyongyang in July 2000, four months after he was first elected president. He met the country’s then-leader, Kim Jong Il, Kim’s father.

In a letter published in Tuesday’s edition of the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, Putin said the two countries had developed good relations and partnerships over the past 70 years based on equality, mutual respect and trust.

“We will develop alternative mechanisms of trade and mutual settlements that are not controlled by the West, and jointly resist illegitimate unilateral restrictions,” Putin wrote. “And at the same time – we will build an architecture of equal and indivisible security in Eurasia.”

He thanked North Korea for supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine and promised to support Pyongyang to defend its interests against what he called “US pressure, blackmail and military threats”.

There are growing concerns that Pyongyang is providing Moscow with badly needed munitions for the war in Ukraine in exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers to fuel the military modernisation programme Kim has been pursuing in recent years.

South Korea and the United States discussed the impending visit last week and expressed concerns about the implications for regional security of the two countries’ closer ties.