Russian despot Vladimir Putin has praised North Korea for “firmly supporting” his brutal invasion of Ukraine, as Kim Jong-un prepares to roll out the red carpet to welcome his fellow autocrat.
News footage showed Putin landing in North Korea on Tuesday for his first trip to the isolated nation in 24 years, with a clash between North and South Korean troops on their shared border highlighting regional security tensions.
Huge banners with a smiling photo of the Russian leader reading: “We warmly welcome President Putin!” They were hung on lampposts across Pyongyang along with Russian flags, footage from Russian state media showed.
Moscow and Pyongyang have been allies since the founding of North Korea after World War II and have grown even closer since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 led the West to isolate Putin internationally.
The United States and its allies have accused North Korea of supplying Russia with much-needed weapons, including ballistic missiles for use in Ukraine, making a mockery of the growing relationship between the two nations.
Russian despot Vladimir Putin (pictured, right) praised North Korea for “firmly supporting” his brutal invasion of Ukraine.
News footage showed Putin landing in North Korea on Tuesday for his first trip to the isolated nation in 24 years.
The North has denied giving military equipment to Russia but, before his trip, Putin thanked Kim Jong Un’s government for helping the war effort.
The North has denied giving military equipment to Russia but, before his trip, Putin thanked Kim Jong Un’s government for helping the war effort.
“We very much appreciate that the DPRK (North Korea) is strongly supporting Russia’s special military operations being carried out in Ukraine,” Putin wrote in an article published by Pyongyang’s state media on Tuesday.
Russia and the North “are now actively developing a multifaceted partnership,” Putin wrote.
Both countries are under a series of UN sanctions: Pyongyang since 2006 for its banned nuclear and ballistic missile programs and Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
Putin praised North Korea for “very effectively defending its interests despite decades-long economic pressure, provocation, blackmail and military threats from the United States.”
He also praised Moscow and Pyongyang for “maintaining the common line and position at the UN.”
North Korea said the visit demonstrated that bilateral ties “are strengthening day by day,” the official Korean Central News Agency reported, and would “give new vitality to the development of cooperative and good-neighborly relations between the two countries.” .
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged the international community to counter “the lonely bromance” between Putin and Kim by increasing arms supplies to kyiv.
“The best way to respond is to continue strengthening the diplomatic coalition for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine and deliver more Patriots and ammunition to Ukraine,” Kuleba told AFP.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Putin’s trip demonstrated the extent to which he was “dependent” on authoritarian leaders.
“Its closest friends and biggest supporters of the Russian war effort – the war of aggression – (are) North Korea, Iran and China,” Stoltenberg said.
North Korea is eager for cutting-edge military technology to advance its nuclear, missile, satellite and nuclear-powered submarine programs, experts say.
Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov said the two leaders would likely sign a “comprehensive strategic partnership treaty” to outline cooperation on “security issues,” Russian state news agencies reported.
Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov said the two leaders would likely sign a “comprehensive strategic partnership treaty” to outline cooperation on “security issues” (File image)
An overnight drone strike set fire to several oil storage tanks near the southern Russian city of Azov on Tuesday.
North Korea could promise to “provide Russia with ongoing supplies of artillery, multiple-launch guided rockets and short-range missiles to support Russia’s operations in Ukraine,” Bruce Bennett, senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation, told Yonhap.
In return, he will want “Russia to provide a variety of advanced technologies,” he said, as well as “a substantial flow of Russian oil and food products along with hard currency payments.”
Despite this, North Korea has called accusations of arms supplies to Russia “absurd.”
However, he thanked Russia for using its U.N. veto in March to effectively end monitoring of sanctions violations just as U.N. experts began investigating alleged arms transfers.
The United States on Monday expressed “concern” about the trip because of the security implications for South Korea and Ukraine.
The two Koreas have remained technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict and the border dividing them is one of the most fortified in the world.
“We know that North Korean ballistic missiles are still being used to hit Ukrainian targets (and) there could be some reciprocity here that could affect security on the Korean Peninsula,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
Ukraine did not immediately claim responsibility, but has carried out similar attacks on Russian energy facilities before.
Authorities did not say how many drones were involved in the attack.
A video released by the Emergency Ministry showed thick smoke and flames billowing from what appeared to be multiple oil storage tanks at an undisclosed location.
Highlighting those security concerns, South Korea said its troops fired on North Korean soldiers who briefly crossed the border on Tuesday and then withdrew.
The South Korean military said it believed the North Korean soldiers accidentally crossed while fortifying the border, but said some of them were injured after detonating landmines.
It comes as an overnight drone strike set several oil storage tanks on fire near the city of Azov in southern Russia on Tuesday, sparking a large fire, local officials said.
Ukraine did not immediately claim responsibility, but has already carried out similar attacks on Russian energy facilities, arguing they are fair targets since they feed Moscow’s military.
‘Petroleum product tanks caught fire in Azov as a result of a drone attack. According to preliminary data, there were no victims,” the governor of the local Rostov region, Vasili Golubev, said on Telegram.
A video released by the Emergency Ministry showed thick smoke and flames billowing from what appeared to be multiple oil storage tanks at an undisclosed location.
Authorities did not say how many drones were involved in the attack.
About 200 firefighters and emergency personnel were deployed to tackle the blaze, which covered an area of at least 3,200 square meters (3,800 square yards), the Emergencies Ministry said.
The Rostov region is located directly across the border from Ukraine and is home to the operations headquarters overseeing the invasion of Russia.
On the battlefield, Ukraine said Russian forces were fighting to enter the outskirts of Chasiv Yar, a war-torn town in the east whose capture could accelerate Russian advances.
Ukraine’s war-scarred eastern region of Donetsk, home to Chasiv Yar, has been hardest hit by fighting for more than two years and the Kremlin claims the region is part of Russia.
“The enemy continues to try to advance towards the Novy microdistrict in the city of Chasiv Yar,” the Ukrainian military said in a briefing, adding that “fighting is currently taking place.”
Further south, he said Moscow’s forces were also advancing toward Pokrovsk, where they were approaching a key highway that would complicate supplies between strategic centers in the region.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s air force said it had shot down 10 Iranian-designed attack drones launched by Russian forces overnight.