Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit North Korea for a two-day visit, his first in 24 years, both countries have announced.
Mr Putin is expected to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday local time for talks focused on expanding military cooperation as they deepen their alignment in the face of separate and intensifying confrontations with Washington.
“At the invitation of the Chairman of State Affairs of the DPRK, Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin will pay a friendly state visit to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on June 18-19,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency also confirmed the visit.
Mr Putin will then visit Vietnam on June 19-20, the Kremlin said.
Both visits had been expected, although the dates had not previously been announced.
Since the war in Ukraine began, Mr Putin has stayed close to home, rarely leaving Russia last year.
The visit comes amid growing international concerns about an arms arrangement in which Pyongyang provides Moscow with munitions to fuel Mr Putin’s war in Ukraine in exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers that would enhance the threat posed by Mr Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile program.
Military, economic and other cooperation between North Korea and Russia have sharply increased since Mr Kim visited the Russian Far East in September for a meeting with Mr Putin, their first since 2019.
US and South Korean officials have accused the North of providing Russia with artillery, missiles and other military equipment to help prolong its fighting in Ukraine, possibly in return for key military technologies and aid.
Both Pyongyang and Moscow have denied accusations about North Korean weapons transfers, which would be in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.
Any weapons trade with North Korea would be a violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions that Russia, a permanent UN Security Council member, previously endorsed.
Andrei Lankov, an expert on North Korea at Kookmin University in Seoul, noted that in exchange for providing artillery munitions and short-range ballistic missiles, Pyongyang hopes to get higher-end weapons from Moscow.
Mr Lankov said while Russia could be reluctant to share its state-of-the-art military technologies with North Korea, it is eager to receive munitions from Pyongyang.
“There is never enough ammunition in a war, there is a great demand for them,” M Lankov said.
Mr Putin first visited Pyongyang in July 2000, months after his first election when he met with Mr Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, who ruled the country then.
Moscow has said it “highly appreciates” Pyongyang’s support for Russia’s military action in Ukraine and mentioned its “close and fruitful cooperation” at the United Nations and other international organisations.
Russia, together with China, have repeatedly blocked the US and its partners’ attempts to impose fresh UN sanctions on North Korea over its barrage of banned ballistic missile tests.
In March, a Russian veto at the United Nations ended monitoring of UN sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear program, prompting Western accusations that Moscow is seeking to avoid scrutiny as it allegedly violates the sanctions to buy weapons from Pyongyang for use in Ukraine.
Earlier this year, Mr Putin sent Mr Kim a high-end Aurus Senat limousine, which he had shown to the North Korean leader when they met for a summit in September.
Observers said the shipment violated a UN resolution aimed at pressuring the North to give up its nuclear weapons program by banning the supply of luxury items to North Korea.
Mr Putin has continuously sought to rebuild ties with Pyongyang as part of his efforts to restore his country’s global clout and its Soviet-era alliances.
Moscow’s ties with North Korea weakened after the 1991 Soviet collapse.
AP