Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register SEOUL, Aug 15 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin told North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that the two countries would “expand comprehensive and constructive bilateral relations with joint efforts”, Pyongyang’s state media reported on Monday. In a letter to Kim on Korea’s Liberation Day, Putin said closer ties would be in the interest of both countries and help strengthen the security and stability of the Korean Peninsula and the Northeast Asian region, North Korean news agency KCNA reported. Kim also sent a letter to Putin saying Russia-North Korea friendship had been forged in World War II with the victory over Japan, which had occupied the Korean peninsula. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register “Strategic and tactical cooperation, support and solidarity” between the two countries has since reached a new level as their joint efforts to thwart threats and provocations from hostile military forces, Kim said in the letter. KCNA did not identify the enemy forces, but usually uses that term to refer to the United States and its allies. Kim predicted that cooperation between Russia and North Korea would develop based on an agreement signed in 2019 when he met with Putin. North Korea in July recognized two Russian-backed breakaway “people’s republics” in eastern Ukraine as independent states, and officials raised the prospect of sending North Korean workers to the regions to help with construction and other labor. read more Ukraine, which is resisting a Russian invasion described by Moscow as a “special military operation”, immediately cut ties with Pyongyang over the move. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by Josh Smith. edited by Diane Craft and Lincoln Feast Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
