Putin in North Korea to meet Kim Jong-un, who is helping Russia with supply of weapons
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin arrived on a two-day visit to North Korea at the invitation of his colleague Kim Jong-un, reported the press service of the Kremlin.
After arriving in Pyongyang, Putin was personally met by Kim Jong-un. Russian propaganda media report that the Russian leader is accompanied on the trip, in particular, by First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak, Minister of Defense Andrey Belousov and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov.
The Kremlin noted that Putin's visit to North Korea will last two days and will include meetings of various formats, including with Kim Jong-un.
Before that, he had not visited the DPRK for 24 years and his last visit to the country was in 2000.
Back in the fall of 2022, the United States announced that the DPRK was secretly transferring artillery shells to Russia for the war with Ukraine. At the time, the White House said that Pyongyang was trying to hide the final destination of its weapons supplies as they were allegedly going to countries in the Middle East or North Africa.
In 2023, Washington also showed a map showing the movement of more than 1,000 containers of North Korean military equipment and ammunition. According to the United States, this cargo was delivered to the Russian Federation.
In November 2023, Bloomberg wrote that the value of North Korean supplies to Russia could reach about $3 billion.
On January 4, 2024, the United States confirmed that the Russian Federation received ballistic missiles from the DPRK and used them during attacks on Ukraine on December 29 and January 2.
The Ministry of Defense of South Korea also reported at the time that Pyongyang could sell Russia a new type of ballistic missiles for use by Moscow in the war against Ukraine.
On February 23, Ukraine's Defense Intelligence announced that the DPRK has already sent 1.5 million artillery shells to Russia. In return, the country is asking Moscow for missile technology.