WNAM Monitoring: North Korea said Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his willingness to visit Pyongyang at an early date and the country is ready to “greet the Korean people’s closest friend with the greatest sincerity.”
The North Korean foreign minister’s assistant office made the announcement in a statement released on the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), two days after Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui returned from a trip to Moscow.
“President Putin expressed deep thanks once again for the invitation of President of the State Affairs Kim Jong Un to visit Pyongyang at a convenient time and expressed his willingness to visit the DPRK at an early date,” the KCNA said.
Choe’s visit to Russia came with the two countries seeking to strengthen military cooperation, as the North has been supplying Russia with arms for use in its war against Ukraine in exchange for Russia’s technical assistance for Pyongyang’s weapons programs. Choe met with her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, and paid a courtesy call on Putin.
