Russian Foreign Minister Meets N.Korean Leader Kim

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Russia’s Foreign Ministry says on Thursday, as the two countries forge closer ties in the face of what they see as a hostile and aggressive U.S.-led Western camp.

Russia’s State-run TASS news agency reported that Lavrov’s meeting with Kim had lasted over an hour but the Ministry did not provide further details.

Lavrov, who arrived in Pyongyang on Wednesday, earlier thanked North Korea for backing Russia’s military actions in Ukraine and pledged Moscow’s “complete support and solidarity” for Kim, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said.

Speaking at a reception hosted by the North on Wednesday, Lavrov said Moscow strongly valued Pyongyang’s “unwavering and principled support” for Russia in the Ukraine war, which it calls a “special military operation”.

“Likewise the Russian Federation extends its complete support and solidarity with the aspirations of the DPRK,” Lavrov said, according to the transcript of the speech released on his Ministry’s website. DPRK are the initials of the North’s official name, the Democratic People

After talks with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, Lavrov later told reporters that increased military activities by the United States and its allies Japan and South Korea were a cause for concern, Russia’s State-run RIA news agency reported.

REUTERS