“I am convinced that we will continue to strengthen bilateral cooperation in all areas,” Putin told Kim, according to a Kremlin statement quoted by the French agency AFP.
Putin said cooperation between the two countries would be beneficial to “strengthening stability and security on the Korean peninsula and the wider Northeast Asia region”.
North Korea has close relations with Russia and is one of Moscow’s supporters in the war against Ukraine that started on February 24, 2022.
North Korea marks today the day of Japan’s surrender in World War II (1939-1945), which meant the end of occupation of Korean territory by Japanese troops.
Putin praised Korea Liberation Day, a “symbol of the courage and heroism of Red Army soldiers and Korean patriots who fought together” against “Japanese colonialism”.
It was at that time that “traditions of friendship and cooperation were born which became a solid foundation for the development of good neighborly relations between the Russian Federation and North Korea,” he said.
On July 27, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu described North Korea as an “important partner” for Moscow during a meeting in Pyongyang with North Korean counterpart Kang Sun-nam.
Shoigu was in Pyongyang at the ceremonies for the 70th anniversary of the armistice of the Korean War (1950-1953), which led to the division of the Korean peninsula into two countries.
In the conflict, which took place in the context of the Cold War, Russia and China sided with North Korea against South Korean forces, which had the support of an international UN force led by the United States.
The two Koreas signed a ceasefire on July 27, 1953, but never a peace treaty, so technically they are still at war.
Putin’s statement comes just days before a summit of South Korea, the United States and Japan to bolster security cooperation in the face of an increasingly threatening North Korea.
The meeting of the leaders of the three countries will take place on Friday in Washington.
Relations between the two Koreas have been at an impasse, while Kim Jong-un talks of an accelerating arms race, including tactical nuclear weapons.
