North Korean leader Kim reaffirms support for Russia in Ukraine conflict, KCNA says

SEOUL – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told Russia’s top diplomat his country was ready to “unconditionally support” all actions taken by Moscow to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, state media reported on July 13, as the two countries held high-level strategic talks.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is on a three-day visit to North Korea, which has provided troops and arms for Russia’s war with Ukraine and pledged more military support as Moscow tries to make advances in the conflict.

Mr Kim met Mr Lavrov in the eastern coastal city of Wonsan, where Mr Lavrov and North Korea’s foreign minister also held their second strategic dialogue, pledging further cooperation under a partnership treaty signed in 2024 that includes a mutual defence pact.

Mr Kim told Mr Lavrov that the steps taken by the allies in response to radically evolving global geopolitics will contribute greatly to securing peace and security around the world, North Korea’s state news agency KCNA reported.

“Kim Jong Un reaffirmed that the DPRK is ready to unconditionally support and encourage all the measures taken by the Russian leadership as regards the tackling of the root cause of the Ukrainian crisis,” KCNA said. DPRK is short for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s official name.

Mr Lavrov earlier held talks with his North Korean counterpart Choe Son Hui in Wonsan, and they issued a joint statement pledging support to safeguard the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of each other’s countries, KCNA said.

Later on July 13, North Korea’s Defence Ministry said in a statement it stood ready to take military action to counter any security threat, in a warning against South Korea, Japan and the US following a recent aerial drill by the allies.

The warning followed a US B-52 strategic bomber flight near South Korea flanked by the three countries’ fighter jets in a defence exercise on July 11. The nuclear-armed North has previously issued similar threats.

On July 12, Russian media reported that Mr Lavrov described the two countries’ ties as “an invincible fighting brotherhood” in his meeting with Mr Kim and thanked him for the troops deployed to Russia.

Relations between Russia and North Korea have deepened dramatically during the last two years of the war in Ukraine, which started in February 2022, with Pyongyang deploying more than 10,000 troops and arms to Russia to back Moscow’s military campaign.

On July 13, the intelligence arm of South Korea’s Defence Ministry reported to Parliament that North Korea continued to supply artillery ammunition to Russia and has so far shipped about 12 million rounds, Yonhap news agency said.

The Defence Intelligence Agency, which made the report, could not be reached for confirmation.

An earlier estimate of artillery and rocket launcher ammunition, by a group of 11 UN member countries set up to track North Korea’s violation of past UN Security Council resolutions, was around nine million rounds.

Mr Kim’s government has pledged to send about 6,000 military engineers and builders to help in reconstruction work in Russia’s Kursk region. REUTERS