Russian despot Vladimir Putin has praised North Korea for “strongly supporting” its brutal invasion of Ukraine, as Kim Jong Un prepares to roll out the red carpet to receive his fellow autocrat.
Newsreel footage showed Putin landing in North Korea on Tuesday for his first trip to the isolated country in 24 years, with a confrontation between North and South Korean forces on their shared border highlighting regional security tensions.
Huge banners with a smiling photo of the Russian leader and the text ‘we welcome President Putin!’ were hung next to Russian flags on lampposts in Pyongyang, images in Russian state media showed.
Moscow and Pyongyang have been allies since North Korea’s creation after World War II and have grown even closer since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine led the West to isolate Putin internationally.
The United States and its allies have accused North Korea of supplying Russia with desperately needed weapons, including ballistic missiles for use in Ukraine, making fun of the growing relationship between the two nations.
Russian despot Vladimir Putin (pictured, right) praised North Korea for its “strong support” of its brutal invasion of Ukraine
Newsreel footage showed Putin landing in North Korea on Tuesday for his first trip to the isolated country in 24 years
The North has denied giving Russia military hardware, but ahead of his trip Putin thanked Kim Jong Un’s government for its help in the war effort
The North has denied giving Russia military equipment, but ahead of his trip Putin thanked Kim Jong Un’s government for its help in the war effort.
“We highly appreciate the DPRK’s (North Korea) strong support for Russia’s special military operations in Ukraine,” Putin wrote in an article published in Pyongyang’s state media on Tuesday.
Russia and the North are “now actively developing the multi-faceted partnership,” Putin wrote.
Both countries are subject to a series of UN sanctions: Pyongyang since 2006 over banned nuclear and ballistic missile programs and Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
Putin praised North Korea for “defending their interests very effectively despite American economic pressure, provocation, blackmail and military threats that have persisted for decades.”
He also praised Moscow and Pyongyang for “maintaining the common line and position at the UN.”
North Korea said the visit showed that bilateral ties are “growing stronger day by day,” the official Korean Central News Agency reported, and would “give new vitality to the development of 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 Kiev.
“The best way to respond to this is to continue to strengthen the diplomatic coalition for just and lasting peace in Ukraine and to supply more patriots and ammunition to Ukraine,” Kuleba told AFP.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Putin’s trip showed how “dependent” he was on authoritarian leaders.
“Their best friends and the biggest supporters of the Russian war effort – the war of aggression – (are) North Korea, Iran and China,” Stoltenberg said.
North Korea desires high-end military technology to advance its nuclear, missile, satellite and nuclear-powered submarine programs, experts said.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said the two leaders might sign a “comprehensive strategic partnership treaty” to outline cooperation on “security issues,” Russian state news agencies reported.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said the two leaders might sign a “comprehensive strategic partnership treaty” to outline cooperation on “security issues” (File image)
A nighttime drone strike set fire to several oil storage tanks near the city of Azov in southern Russia on Tuesday
North Korea could pledge to “provide Russia with continued supplies of artillery, multi-launch guided missiles and short-range ballistic missiles in support of Russian operations in Ukraine,” Bruce Bennett, senior defense analyst at RAND Corporation, told Yonhap.
In return, the country will want “Russia to supply a variety of advanced technologies,” he said, plus “a substantial flow of Russian oil and food products, along with hard currency payments.”
Despite this, North Korea has described the accusations of supplying weapons to Russia as “absurd.”
The country did, however, thank Russia for using its UN veto in March to effectively end monitoring of sanctions violations, just as UN experts began investigating alleged arms transfers.
The United States on Monday expressed “concerns” about the trip because of the security implications for both South Korea and Ukraine.
The two Koreas have technically remained at war since their 1950-53 conflict, and the border separating them is one of the most heavily 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 impact security on the Korean Peninsula,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. to reporters.
Ukraine did not immediately claim responsibility, but has previously carried out similar attacks on Russian energy facilities
Officials did not say how many drones were involved in the attack
A video published by the Ministry of Emergency Situations showed thick smoke and flames rising from what appeared to be multiple oil storage tanks at an undisclosed location
South Korea highlighted these security concerns, saying its troops fired on soldiers from the North who briefly crossed the border on Tuesday and then withdrew.
The South’s military said it believed the North Korean soldiers accidentally crossed the border while fortifying the border, but said some of them were injured after detonating landmines.
It comes as a nighttime drone strike set fire to several oil storage tanks near the city of Azov in southern Russia on Tuesday, causing a major fire, local officials said.
Ukraine did not immediately claim responsibility but has previously carried out similar attacks on Russian energy facilities, arguing that they are fair targets as they provide fuel for the Moscow military.
‘Oil product tanks caught fire in Azov as a result of a drone attack. According to preliminary data, there have been no casualties,” the governor of the local Rostov region, Vasily Golubev, said on Telegram.
A video published by the Emergency Situations Ministry showed thick smoke and flames rising from what appeared to be multiple oil storage tanks at an undisclosed location.
Officials did not say how many drones were involved in the attack.
About 200 firefighters and emergency responders were deployed to battle the blaze, which covered an area of at least 3,200 square meters, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.
The Rostov region is located directly across the border from Ukraine and is home to the operational headquarters overseeing the Russian invasion.
On the battlefield, Ukraine said Russian forces were fighting to penetrate the outskirts of Khasiv Yar, a flashpoint of the war in the east whose capture could accelerate Russia’s advance.
Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, home to war-scarred Chasiv Yar, has borne the brunt of fighting in the past two years and the Kremlin claims the region is part of Russia.
“The enemy continues to try to advance towards the Novy microdistrict of the city of Chasiv Yar,” the Ukrainian army said in a briefing, adding that fighting was “currently taking place.”
Further south, Moscow’s forces would also advance towards Pokrovsk, approaching a key road that would complicate supplies between strategic hubs in the region.
The Ukrainian air force, meanwhile, said it had shot down 10 Iranian-designed attack drones launched by Russian forces overnight.