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Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed to develop their nations’ relations, which state media said have emerged as a “strategic fortress”, during a meeting on the first day of Putin’s visit to Pyongyang.
Kim greeted Putin at dawn on Wednesday at Pyongyang airport, shaking hands, embracing and talking beside the Russian leader’s plane.
The pair then rode in the same limousine and walked together into Putin’s hotel.
Putin made his first visit to North Korea in 24 years vowing to deepen trade and security ties with the reclusive nuclear-armed state and to support it against the United States.

The meeting between the two leaders shows “invincibility and durability” of friendship and unity between North Korea and Russia, according to state news agency KCNA.
North Korea- Russia relations have “emerged as a strong strategic fortress for preserving international justice, peace and security and an engine for accelerating the building of a new multipolar world,” KCNA said.
Officials in Washington and Seoul say North Korea has supplied weapons to Russia to help it fight in Ukraine.
Moscow and Pyongyang have denied arms transfers but have vowed to boost military ties, possibly including joint drills.
Putin’s trip comes after Kim travelled to Russia in September, which as satellite imagery later showed was followed by a massive growth in arms transfers.
Putin is in Pyongyang for the first time since he visited in 2000 as Russia’s president. He and Kim are scheduled to hold bilateral talks, including one-on-one, and the two sides will sign agreements, including on security and economic cooperation.
The two leaders will also make press statements, Interfax news wire reported, citing Putin’s foreign policy aide. Putin will travel to Vietnam on Wednesday evening after wrapping up talks with Kim, according to the Kremlin.
The focus on the visit will be on economic and technical cooperation as well as security, but the real deliverables will not be publicly disclosed,” said Victor Cha, the senior vice-president for Asia at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank.

Putin’s visit came hours after the first high-level security talks between China and South Korea in about nine years on Tuesday.
After the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of China as an economic power, Beijing has been Pyongyang’s main benefactor. But the deepening relationship between Kim and Putin may be leading to a realignment.
“North Korea’s preference to work with Russia seems to be impacting DPRK-China relations negatively at this point in time,” said Rachel Minyoung Lee, a senior fellow with the 38 North Programme at the Stimson Centre, referring to North Korea by its formal name.
“But closer DPRK-Russia relations may not necessarily be a bad thing for China in the longer run, especially if the two countries can help to disrupt the US agenda without negatively impacting China’s core interests,” she said.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg


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North Korea

North Korea, Russia tout ‘strategic fortress’ ties as Putin visits Pyongyang

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un welcomes Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday morning upon his arrival at Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang. Photo: KCNA via KNS / AFP

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un welcomes Russia’s President Vladimir Putin upon his arrival at Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang on Wednesday. Photo: KCNA via KNS/AFP

Kim and Putin walk past an honour guard at Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang on Wednesday. Photo: KCNA via KNS/AFP

Putin chats with Kim at the Kumsusan State Guest House in Pyongyang on Wednesday. Photo: KCNA via KNS/AFP

Putin’s ‘destabilising’ North Korea trip unnerves Seoul with ‘existential threats’

Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un shake hands during a meeting in Russia last year. Photo: AP

Putin and Kim examine a rocket assembly hangar during their meeting at Russia’s Vostochny cosmodrome in the far eastern Amur region last year. Photo: AP

American and South Korean soldiers stand guard in the Panmunjom truce village in the Joint Security Area of the demilitarised zone separating North and South Korea. Photo: AFP

Missiles are launched from an undisclosed location in North Korea during a simulated nuclear counter-attack drill in this image released by state media in April. Photo: EPA-EFE

Hanoi residents praise ‘idol’ Putin, Russia’s ‘world leader’ as he visits Vietnam

Nguyen Thi Hong Van, a collector and seller of Russian souvenirs, poses at her shop in Hanoi. Photo: Reuters

Nguyen Thi Hong Van lived and worked in Russia for 20 years, and collects Russian souvenirs. Photo: Reuters

Workers arrange flower pots in front of a monument of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin in Hanoi. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is set to travel to Vietnam this week. Photo: AFP

Putin pledges trade, security ties with North Korea free of West’s influence

Russian President Vladimir Putin talks to service members at an event in the Moscow region on Friday. Photo: AFP

Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (centre right) examine a launch pad at the Vostochny cosmodrome in Russia’s far eastern Amur region last year. Photo: Sputnik via AP

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Kim Jong-un greeted the Russian president at dawn on Wednesday at Pyongyang airport before riding off together in the same limousine


Kim Jong-un greeted the Russian president at dawn on Wednesday at Pyongyang airport before riding off together in the same limousine.


North Korea, Russia tout ‘strategic fortress’ ties as Putin visits Pyongyang

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Kim Jong-un greeted the Russian president at dawn on Wednesday at Pyongyang airport before riding off together in the same limousine

Kim Jong-un greeted the Russian president at dawn on Wednesday at Pyongyang airport before riding off together in the same limousine