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full screen North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un during the visit of President Vladimir Putin in the Russian Far East in September. Photo: KCNA/AP/TT
Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his willingness to visit North Korea shortly, according to a statement from Foreign Minister Choe Son-Hui.
“President Putin is warmly welcome to visit Pyongyang and the government is ready to receive the closest friend of the Korean people with the greatest sincerity,” the minister is said to have greeted Putin in connection with a visit to Moscow last week, according to the closed dictatorship’s news agency KCNA.
North Korea’s leader met Putin in Russia in September, and news that the president may be about to visit Pyongyang for the first time in more than 20 years is yet another sign that ties between the two regimes are strengthening.
In the West, Pyongyang is accused of collaborating with Moscow to support the war in Ukraine. Among other things, the regime is said to have sent a large amount of artillery ammunition and weapons to Russia.