Russian President Vladimir Putin has pledged to co-operate with North Korea to strengthen both regimes’ resistance to western sanctions, as he prepared to make his first visit to Pyongyang in 24 years and sign a new strategic partnership with Kim Jong Un.
Putin, who will arrive in Pyongyang for a two-day visit late on Tuesday, said Russia would seek to work closely with North Korea to resist pressure over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programme, according to an article published in North Korean state newspaper Rodong Sinmun.
“We will develop alternative mechanisms of trade and mutual settlements that are not controlled by the west and jointly resist illegitimate unilateral restrictions,” Putin wrote, adding that the countries would “build an architecture of equal and indivisible security in Eurasia”.