North Korea’s top diplomat said her country is “ready to greet” Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korean state media reported yesterday, in the latest sign of deepening ties between the two authoritarian states.
Traditional allies Russia and North Korea have recently boosted ties, with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un making a rare overseas trip to Russia in September last year to meet Putin.
The West has accused Moscow and Pyongyang of working together to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with North Korea believed to have sent hundreds of thousands of artillery shells and weapons to its ally.
Photo: AFP
North Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Choe Son-hui was in Moscow last week for meetings with Putin and her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
The North Korean “government warmly welcomes President Putin to visit Pyongyang and is ready to greet the Korean people’s closest friend with the greatest sincerity,” Choe told Putin, a statement from the foreign minister’s assistant office said, carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
Putin expressed “his willingness to visit the DPRK at an early date,” the statement said, referring to North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The statement added that Russia had expressed “deep thanks... for extending full support and solidarity to the stand of the Russian government and people on the special military operation in Ukraine.”
Increasing military and economic cooperation between Russia and North Korea has triggered concerns in Washington and Seoul.
Top Russian officials, including Moscow’s defense and foreign ministers, visited North Korea last year, fanning concern among Kyiv’s allies over a potential arms deal.
This month, the White House accused Pyongyang of sending ballistic missiles and launchers to Russia in what it called a “significant and concerning escalation” of support for Moscow’s war effort.
South Korea has accused Pyongyang of having provided more than 1 million artillery rounds to Moscow in exchange for advice on military satellite technology.
North Korea succeeded in putting a spy satellite into orbit last year, with Seoul saying North Korea had received Russian help.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
RSS