At the instruction of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Secretary of the Russian Security Council Sergei Shoigu arrived in Pyongyang, where a meeting with Chairman of the State Council of the DPRK Kim Jong-un is planned.
This is Shoigu's second visit to Pyongyang in a little over two months.
The press service of the Russian Security Council reported that the talks are expected to include “discussing the implementation of individual points of the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the Russian Federation and the DPRK, as well as perpetuating the memory of the Korean fighters who helped liberate the Kursk region“. In addition, it is expected that topical issues on the international agenda will be discussed, including the situation around Ukraine.
The previous visit of the Secretary of the Russian Security Council to the DPRK was on March 21. Then he was also received by Kim Jong-un, and the talks lasted about two hours. Shoigu announced that he had conveyed a message from Russian President Vladimir Putin to the leader of the DPRK, and issues related to Ukraine and the beginning of a dialogue between the Russian Federation and the United States were discussed.
Last week in Moscow, during an international meeting of high-ranking representatives responsible for security issues, the Secretary of the Russian Security Council held talks with the Minister of State Security of the DPRK, Ri Chang-de. According to Shoigu, the established trusting relations between the leaders of Russia and the DPRK "reflect the mutual desire of the two countries and peoples to further expand mutually beneficial cooperation in a complex international environment and give impetus to the development of bilateral political dialogue and cooperation in the practical sphere."
He also said that 2025 would be a busy year in terms of large-scale bilateral events and contacts. Thus, the visit of the Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin to Pyongyang will coincide with the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Korea in August, and in October, a visit is planned by the Chairman of the United Russia party, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev, who will take part in the celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea.
The Secretary of the Security Council of Russia thanked in particular the Korean soldiers who "shoulder to shoulder with Russian fighters defended the Kursk region as their homeland", and assured that he would continue the work to perpetuate the memory of "Korean brothers who died in the fight against the neo-Nazi plague".
"It is extremely important for us that the Korean people are on our side – together in one trench we are not only defending our sovereignty and dignity, but also fighting for the construction of a new multipolar world order“, noted Shoigu. According to him, the fact that the DPRK leadership declared its support for Russia “after the reunification with Crimea, the Donbass republics, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, after the start of the so-called special military operation, “testifies to the truly independent nature of Pyongyang's policy, based on its own understanding of justice”.
Shoigu noted that cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang is developing vigorously, although he admitted that relations could have been established much earlier. He noted that interaction between the Russian Federation and the DPRK has significantly intensified after the signing of a comprehensive partnership agreement about a year ago.