North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has promised to support Russian President Vladimir Putin and offered his country’s “full support and solidarity” to bolster strategic cooperation on their shared goal of building a powerful country.
According to state media on Monday, Kim made the pledge in a message to Putin marking Russia’s National Day, defending his decision to invade Ukraine and displaying “full support and solidarity.”
“Justice is sure to win and the Russian people will continue to add glory to the history of victory,” Kim said in the message published by KCNA.
The North Korean people, it added, extend “full support and solidarity to the Russian people in their all-out struggle for implementing the sacred cause to preserve the sovereign rights, development and interests of their country against the imperialists’ high-handed and arbitrary practices.”
This is the latest message of support from Pyongyang to Moscow since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
In January, the United States accused North Korea of supplying rockets and missiles to the Russian mercenary group Wagner. Pyongyang denied that allegation.
And in March, Washington claimed to have proof that Moscow was looking to Pyongyang to supply weapons for its offensive in Ukraine, in return for food aid for impoverished North Korea.
As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, Russia has long held the line against increasing pressure on North Korea, which is under multiple UN and Western sanctions over its nuclear weapons and missile programmes.
