North Korean leader Kim Jong-un expressed “full support” for President Vladimir Putin on Sunday on the occasion of Russia Day, North Korea’s official KCNA news agency reported.
Kim Jong-un sent a congratulatory message to Putin and the people of Russia on the country’s independence day, the KCNA said.
Under Putin’s leadership, Kim said, Russia “has managed to boldly overcome all kinds of challenges and difficulties” it faced “to carry out the just cause of upholding dignity, security and the right to development.”
Without ever mentioning the war in Ukraine, the North Korean leader reaffirmed “the friendship between the two countries”, which “has been passed down through a long history”, also revealing the will to “expand and develop” this relationship “in accordance with the demands of the new era and the aspirations of the two peoples”.
Kim noted that the friendship and cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang “have entered a new phase” since the first summit between the two leaders in 2019.
Pyongyang hopes that “strategic and tactical cooperation between the two countries will become closer,” he added.
Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin met in Vladivostok, Russia, in April 2019, two months after the second summit between the North Korean leader and former US President Donald Trump was held in Hanoi, Vietnam, to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
The negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang have failed and the dialogue between the two countries has remained stalemated since that meeting.
Source: Observadora
