Russia and North Korea forge closer ties amid shared isolation
Russia's defence minister was photographed this week viewing banned North Korean ballistic missiles with leader Kim Jong Un at a military expo in Pyongyang, signalling deeper ties between the two countries as they face off with the United States. As Russia's isolation over its war in Ukraine has grown, it has seen increasing value in North Korea. For North Korea's part, relations with Russia haven't always been as warm as they were during the heady days of the Soviet Union, but now the country is reaping clear benefits from Moscow's need for friends.
Here's how North Korea-Russia relations began, and how they are becoming closer:POLITICAL BACKING Communist North Korea was formed in the early days of the Cold War with the backing of the Soviet Union. North Korea later battled the South and its U.S. and United Nations allies to a stalemate in the 1950-1953 Korean War with extensive aid from China and the Soviet Union.
North Korea was heavily reliant on Soviet aid for decades, and when the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, it contributed to a deadly famine in the North. Pyongyang's leaders have tended to try to use Beijing and Moscow to balance each other. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un initially had a relatively cool relationship with Russia and China, which both joined the United States in imposing strict sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear tests.
After his country's last nuclear test in 2017, Kim took steps to repair ties. He met Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2019 for the first time in a summit in the Russian city of Vladivostok. In October, Kim sent a birthday greeting to Putin, congratulating him for «crushing the challenges and threats of the United States».
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