News Feed

North Korea’s Kim pledges unwavering support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, media reports

1 min read
North Korea’s Kim pledges unwavering support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, media reports
A 24-hour Yonhap News TV broadcast at Yongsan Railway Station in Seoul shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspecting a training base of the Korean People's Army's special operations forces in western Pyongyang, a day after South Korea's Armed Forces Day. (Kim Jae-Hwan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared that his country will "invariably support" Russia’s war in Ukraine during a meeting with Russia’s defense chief, North Korean state media reported Nov. 30.

A Russian military delegation, led by Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, arrived in North Korea on Nov. 29. The visit has raised international concerns over deepening ties between the two nations, particularly following North Korea’s deployment of thousands of troops to Russia last month.

The Korean Central News Agency said that Kim and Belousov reached "a satisfactory consensus" on strengthening their strategic partnership and safeguarding each nation’s sovereignty, security interests, and international justice amid evolving global security challenges.

Kim emphasized that North Korea "will invariably support the policy of the Russian Federation to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity from the imperialists’ moves for hegemony," according to KCNA.

North Korea has framed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a defensive measure against what both Moscow and Pyongyang describe as NATO’s "reckless" expansion and U.S.-led efforts to undermine Russia’s global standing.

North Korea has given Russia more than 100 ballistic missiles, 5 million artillery shells, Ukraine says
In comments to Interfax-Ukraine, Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) also said Pyongyang had begun supplying Moscow with artillery systems last month.
Article image

Avatar
Olena Goncharova

Head of North America desk

Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.

Read more
News Feed
 (Updated:  )

"I don't know if it’s gonna affect Russia, because he (Russian President Vladimir Putin) wants to obviously probably keep the war going, but we're gonna put tariffs and various things," U.S. President Donald Trump said.

Show More