Moscow:

Russia and North Korea will sign several “important documents” during President Vladimir Putin’s visit this week, including a possible strategic partnership treaty, Russian news agencies reported Monday, citing a Kremlin aide.

Putin is set to travel to the reclusive state on Tuesday, amid Western fears the two countries plan to expand their military co-operation as Moscow wages its offensive in Ukraine.

“Several documents will be signed”, among which will be “important, highly significant documents”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov was quoted as saying by state-run Russian news agencies.

This may include a “comprehensive strategic partnership treaty” which will outline future co-operation and deal with “security issues”, he was quoted as saying.

Putin and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un will also speak to the media during the visit, he added.

Western countries, South Korea and Kyiv have accused Pyongyang of sending weapons to Moscow for use in Ukraine, in violation of United Nations sanctions on North Korea.

Washington and Seoul say Russia has in return provided Pyongyang with technical help for its satellite programme and sent aid to the food-strapped state.

The visit, Putin’s first to the country since 2000, comes nine months after the Russian leader hosted Kim on a rare foreign trip to the Russian Far East.

Putin has scaled down trips abroad since launching the Ukraine offensive, but has paid high-profile visits to key allies like China and Iran as Moscow seeks a united front against the West.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Moscow:

Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to North Korea on Tuesday for a “friendly” visit, the Kremlin announced, as the West suspects Pyongyang of supplying Moscow with weapons for its Ukraine offensive.

The visit to the world’s most reclusive state comes as Putin seeks ammunition to continue his military campaign launched in February 2022, which has thrown Moscow into unprecedented global isolation.

It also comes nine months after Putin hosted North Korea’s Kim Jong Un on a rare foreign trip to the Russian Far East, where the pair lavished each other with praise.

“President Vladimir Putin on June 18-19 will go to the North Korean Democratic Republic on a friendly state visit,” the Kremlin said in a statement.

Moscow said Putin will then travel to Vietnam.

Western countries, South Korea and Kyiv have accused Pyongyang of sending weapons to Moscow for use in Ukraine, in violation of UN sanctions on North Korea.

Washington and Seoul say Russia has in return provided Pyongyang with technical help for its satellite program and sent aid to the food-strapped state.

Putin has scaled down trips abroad since launching the Ukraine offensive, but has paid some high-profile visits to Moscow’s few key allies such as China.

Pyongyang rarely hosts foreign guests, isolated diplomatically and having shut itself off even more since the Covid pandemic.

Russia and North Korea, which share a small land border, have historic links since the Soviet Union helped found the tiny state after the Korean War in the 1950s.

Since the fall of the USSR, Russia was one of the few countries to have working relations with Pyongyang.

‘Comrades-in-arms’

It will be Putin’s second visit to the country in his time in power, after a trip 24 years ago, shortly after becoming president, to meet Kim Jung Un’s father Kim Jong Il.

Back then, Putin was a frequent traveller, regularly touring the United States and Europe.

Now Russia finds itself under heavy international sanctions and the Kremlin leader is a persona non grata in most of the Western world, officially wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Kim said last week that ties with Russia had “developed into an unbreakable relationship of comrades-in-arms”.

When the leaders saw each other in September, Putin said he saw “possibilities” for military cooperation with North Korea, while Kim wished the Kremlin chief “victory” in Ukraine.

They symbolically gifted each other rifles and the Kremlin promised that Putin would visit in turn.

A string of Russian officials, including Moscow’s spy chief, have since visited North Korea in preparation for the visit.

In March, Russia also used its UN Security Council veto to effectively end UN monitoring of North Korean sanctions violations, a move seen as a victory for Pyongyang.

Both Russia and North Korea have denied that Pyongyang’s weapons are being used in Ukraine.

Kim’s powerful sister, Kim Yo Jon, accused Seoul and Washington last month of “misleading public opinion” on the issue.

North Korean shells

Ukraine, however, has reported finding North Korean shells on the battlefield.

In May, South Korea said its northern rival fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles, with some experts saying they could be tests for weapons destined for use against Ukraine.

As the Kremlin and Pyongyang have publicly deepened their ties, Moscow’s relationship with South Korea — a Ukraine backer — has been hugely strained.

Seoul is a major weapons exporter to Kyiv. Its President Yoon Suk Yeol last month promised to maintain its support in a phone call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.

South Korea last month announced separate sanctions on Russian and North Korean individuals and companies allegedly trading military supplies.

For its part, Russia earlier this year detained a South Korean man, Baek Won-soon, on spy charges. He is believed to be the first South Korean detained on espionage charges in Russia for decades.

According to media reports, he may have been a missionary helping North Korean workers in Russia escape the country.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Moscow, Russia:

What should the world be looking for when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin in Russia in the coming days?

The Kremlin said on Monday that Putin had invited Kim Jong to Russia for what will be the North Korean’s second known visit to Russia and his first trip abroad since the COVID pandemic.

Who is Kim Jong Un with?

If he travels with a full military delegation that could give an indication of the nature of the talks. Also of interest is who he meets besides Putin, such as Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu who visited North Korea in July.

The United States has expressed concern over what it calls advancing arms negotiations between the two countries, with White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan urging Kim “not to supply weapons to Russia that will end up killing Ukrainians”.

The United States has accused North Korea of providing arms to Russia, but it is unclear whether any deliveries have been made. Both Russia and North Korea have denied those claims but promised to deepen defence cooperation.

What does Vladimir Putin say?

Analysts say North Korea has huge supplies of artillery shells, rockets and small arms ammunition that could help Russia replenish the vast stocks it has expended in more than 18 months of war in Ukraine, though their quality and the country’s ability to mass produce more is unclear.

Workers may also be something Russia is interested in amid record-low unemployment. Before United Nations Security Council resolutions banned them in 2019, Russia was estimated to host nearly 20,000 North Koreans, according to a report by the Association of Asian Studies.

In return, Russia could offer grain, oil and military technology as Kim looks to develop capabilities such as nuclear-powered submarines and military reconnaissance satellites.

North Korea’s latest Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile – its first ICBM to use solid rocket fuel – has reignited debate over possible Russian links to the nuclear-armed state’s dramatic missile development.

Anything Kim Jong Un says on nuclear weapons

For the past several years, the UN Security Council has been divided over how to deal with North Korea. Russia and China have said more sanctions will not help and want such measures to be eased.

Whatever else comes from the meeting, the summit itself is a sign of support for each country as they face off against international sanctions and pressure.

Putin said after holding his first face-to-face talks with Kim in 2019 that proposed US security guarantees would probably not be enough to persuade Pyongyang to shut its nuclear programme.

Back in 2019, Putin described Kim Jong as “quite open” and as “thoughtful” and “interesting”.

What do Beijing and Washington say?

Communist North Korea was formed in the early days of the Cold War with the backing of the Soviet Union. North Korea later battled the South and its US and United Nations allies to a stalemate in the 1950-1953 Korean War with extensive aid from China and the Soviet Union.

North Korea was heavily reliant on Soviet aid for decades, and the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s contributed to a deadly famine in the North.

Pyongyang’s leaders have often tried to use Beijing and Moscow to balance each other. Kim Jong initially had a relatively cool relationship with Russia and China, which both joined the United States in imposing strict sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear tests.

Anything quirky

Both Putin and Kim Jong know how to catch global headlines.

Back in 2019, the two leaders attended a gala dinner where they toasted each other and watched traditional musical numbers and dancing performed by Russian artists.

The numbers included the Russian classic song “Black Eyes” and a Korean song called “The Great Commander”.

The two men also exchanged gifts. Kim Jong gave Putin a traditional Korean sword, while the Russian leader gave Kim Jong a sabre and a tea service suitable for use on his armoured train.

Kim Jong’s rare foreign trips have occasionally offered more candid moments than what leaks from the tightly controlled state media in the North.

During his 2019 summit with US President Donald Trump in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, Kim spoke to foreign journalists for the first time, during a photo opportunity.

That summit, for which he spent days travelling by train through China, also revealed more interactions between Kim and his sister, Kim Yo Jong. TV footage captured the North Korean leader taking a cigarette break at a railway station in the southern Chinese city of Nanning, with Yo Jong approaching him holding a crystal ashtray in two hands.

At a 2018 Inter-Korean Summit, 12 male bodyguards in dark suits made international headlines after they surrounded Kim’s Mercedes-Benz vehicle and jogged alongside.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)