Russian President Vladimir Putin met with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui in the Kremlin for talks on Monday.
“Today is our national holiday, and meeting good friends on holidays is a good tradition,” Putin said in greeting. The Kremlin did not disclose the details of their conversation.
North Korea supports Moscow in the Russian war in Ukraine, launched in 2022. Choe last visited the Kremlin in January.
It recently emerged that thousands of North Korean soldiers are now in Russia in the border area with Ukraine. On Friday, Choe told his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov that North Korea will help Russia in the war until victory.
On Monday he presented greetings from leader Kim Jong Un to Putin. North Korea has been divided internationally because of its nuclear weapons tests. North Korea has also been widely criticized for supplying weapons to Russia. Russia is under sanctions because of its war with Ukraine.
Putin and Kim signed a cooperation agreement between the two countries during a visit to North Korea this summer, which also provides for mutual military assistance. The Russian president has recently said that the details of the agreement have yet to be clarified.
The West has described the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia as a major escalation of the conflict. The soldiers are said to be in the western Russian region of Kursk. Kiev fears that it will soon be sent to Ukraine.
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