1 of 3 | Russian President Vladimir Putin gifted 70 animals to the Pyongyang Zoo, Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said Wednesday, including a lion, bears and yaks. Photo courtesy of Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment
SEOUL, Nov. 21 (UPI) — Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a North Korean zoo more than 70 animals including an African lion, two brown bears and two yaks, Russia’s environment ministry reported, amid growing military ties between the two countries.
Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Alexander Kozlov delivered over 70 animals to the Pyongyang Zoo, the ministry said in a press release Wednesday. The menagerie was flown to North Korea on a Russian government plane and escorted by veterinarians from the Moscow Zoo.
The collection of animals also included five cockatoos, 25 pheasants and 40 mandarin ducks, the release said.
“Cooperation between Russia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is not only about economics, trade and industry,” Kozlov said, using the official name of North Korea. “There is also a long list of environmental projects. Now, the friendship between the Moscow and Pyongyang Zoos has been added.”
Kozlov led a delegation to Pyongyang this week and had a one-on-one meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who called for a closer scientific and economic relationship between the isolated regimes. The two sides reached a new economic cooperation agreement, North Korean state media reported Thursday, although details of the arrangement were sparse.
Pyongyang has been assisting Moscow in its war against Ukraine by sending munitions and, more recently, troops to Russia.
Washington has estimated that roughly 11,000 North Korean soldiers have been deployed to the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have occupied hundreds of square miles since a surprise incursion in August. The U.S. State Department last week confirmed that the North’s troops had begun combat operations, a conclusion echoed by Seoul’s spy agency.
In an address to the European parliament Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that the North Korean troop contingent could swell to 100,000.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers this week that North Korea has also begun sending long-range artillery systems to Russia, including 170mm self-propelled howitzers and 240mm multiple rocket launchers.
Both Russia and North Korea are under heavy international sanctions, but the military cooperation is believed to be delivering much-needed funding to Pyongyang via weapons sales and payments for troops.
South Korean officials have raised concerns over Moscow sharing missile and nuclear technology with Pyongyang as well. The NIS said last week that North Korea’s new Hwasong-19 intercontinental ballistic missile, test-fired on Oct. 31, could have been developed with Russian technical assistance.
Moscow and Pyongyang have grown closer since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The two sides signed a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty in June, which includes a defense clause that calls for mutual military assistance in the event either country is attacked.
The zoo animals were not the first gift from Putin to North Korea amid warming relations. In August, the Russian president reportedly sent Kim two dozen purebred horses as thanks for supplying artillery shells. He also gave the North Korean leader, known to love luxury cars, a Russian-made Aurus limousine on two separate occasions.