After the war of aggression against Ukraine, many countries are increasingly sealing themselves off from Russia. Quite the opposite of North Korea: in friendly letters, Putin and Kim Jong Un assure each other of their political support.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's ruler Kim Jong Un want to expand relations between their countries. In a message to Kim on the day Korea was liberated from Japanese colonial rule (1910 to 1945), Putin wrote that both sides share a tradition of bilateral friendship and cooperation, North Korean state media reported.
Putin was quoted as saying that it was in the interest of the people of both countries to develop relations. It would also help "bolster security and stability in the Korean Peninsula and throughout the Northeast Asian region."
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the largely isolated North Korea pledged its political support for Putin's course. In July, for example, the leadership in Pyongyang, after Russia and Syria, also recognized the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which had broken away from Kyiv, as independent states. As a result, Ukraine severed diplomatic relations with North Korea.
According to reports from North Korea, Kim also sent a greeting to Putin. In the letter, Kim expressed his belief that friendly relations "are getting stronger in all areas." The basis for this are agreements that both countries reached at their summit in April 2019 in the Russian city of Vladivostok. Both states share a common border near Vladivostok.
