Kim backs Putin’s ‘sacred war’ as North Korea-Russia ties deepen, border tensions flare

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met with a Russian military delegation visiting Pyongyang in sign of deepening security ties as tensions between the two Koreas escalated at their border.

The visit comes about a month after Russian President Vladimir Putin went to Pyongyang and he and Kim signed a mutual defence pact. The US and its partners said the trip firmed up the flow of munitions from North Korea to aid in the Kremlin’s continuing assault on Ukraine.

In the meeting with the delegation, Kim “extended militant greetings to the Russian army and people all out in a sacred war of justice for defending the sovereign rights and security of the state,” KCNA said.

Kim has been buoyed by the cooperation with Russia, receiving aid that supports his economy and military in exchange for sending millions of rounds of munitions and ballistic missiles to the Kremlin, the United States, South Korea and Japan have said. Pyongyang and Moscow have denied the arms transfers despite ample evidence showing them taking place.

At the same time, South Korea has accused Kim’s regime of increasing tensions on the border with military moves within the 4km-wide (2.5-mile) buffer zone that divides the two countries and floating thousands of balloons carrying trash across the border.