Russian President Vladimir Putin accepted an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to visit the secretive Asian country, the North Korean state news agency KCNA reported this Wednesday.
Kim, who is visiting Russia, made the invitation during the dinner that both leaders attended after holding a summit at the Vostochni Cosmodrome, in the Amur region, whose facilities Putin showed the North Korean marshal and his delegation in a guided visit.
After the summit, Putin assured that there is room for bilateral military and space cooperation at a time when the West threatens to impose new sanctions on both countries, which would violate UN resolutions if they agree to an exchange of weapons or related technologies.
“At the end of the reception, Kim Jong-un politely invited Putin to visit the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (the official name of the country, whose acronym is DPRK) at a time convenient to him,” explains the KCNA note.
“Putin gladly accepted the invitation and reaffirmed his willingness to perpetuate the history and tradition of friendship between the Russian Federation and the DPRK in the future,” the text adds.
Putin visited North Korea in 2000, where he held a summit with Kim Jong-il, the then-North Korean leader and father of Kim Jong-un, who died in 2011.
This past Tuesday, Kim assured the Russian president that relations with his country are now Pyongyang’s “top priority,” calling the invasion of Ukraine a “holy war” and reaffirming that North Korea, one of the few countries that has supported without cracks in the Russian campaign, continues to support “all of President Putin’s decisions.”
The North Korean leader arrived in Russia on Tuesday amid strong suspicions from the West about the intention of both countries to strengthen military and space cooperation through a weapons and technology supply agreement.
According to Western sources, Kim would be willing to support Moscow’s war with “millions” of anti-tank missiles and artillery ammunition.
In exchange, in addition to food aid, Pyongyang would receive technology to launch satellites or nuclear-powered submarines, which would greatly strengthen the war capabilities of the North Korean regime.
In another KCNA piece, it is stated that “Kim Jong-un listened carefully to the explanations about the technical characteristics of the Soyuz-2, the Angara and other types of carrier rockets and their assembly and launch processes.”
Kim will spend the night in Russia, where he plans to visit an aircraft factory in the Russian city of Komsomolsk on Amur where several Russian fighter jets are manufactured, and military facilities in Vladivostok.
