Kim offers Putin and Russia North Korea’s full support and refers to Moscow’s 'sacred fight'
Kim Jong Un told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday that his country offers its “full and unconditional support” for Russia’s “sacred fight” to defend its security interests, in an apparent reference to the war in Ukraine, and said Pyongyang will always stand with Moscow on the “anti-imperialist” front.
Through a translator, Kim called North Korea’s relations with Russia “the first priority.”
Putin in his opening remarks welcomed Kim to Russia and said he was glad to see him. Putin listed economic cooperation, humanitarian issues and the “situation in the region” among the agenda items for their talks.
Talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un began on Wednesday at the Vostochny cosmodrome, Russian state news agency Tass reported.
The talks, which included their delegations, began shortly after Putin and Kim toured various facilities at the cosmodrome, including two launch pads.
The leaders met at the remote Siberian rocket launch facility for a summit that underscores how the two leaders’ interests are aligning in the face of their separate, intensifying confrontations with the United States.
The two men began their meeting with a tour of a Soyuz-2 space rocket launch facility, at which the North Korean leader peppered a Russian space official with questions about the rockets.
Kim's meeting with Putin came hours after North Korea fired two ballistic missiles toward the sea, extending a highly provocative run in North Korean weapons testing since the start of 2022, as Kim used the distraction caused by Putin’s war on Ukraine to accelerate his weapons development.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff didn’t immediately say how far the North Korean missiles flew.
