Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un exchange letters showing the two forming closer ties against ‘hostile military forces’ | World News

Russian President Vladimir Putin has written to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, asking for closer ties between the two countries.

North Korea’s state media, KCNA, said the letter from Mr Putin suggested the two sides work to “expand bilateral relations comprehensively and constructively with joint efforts”.

Delivered to Pyongyang on the day of North Korea’s liberation, it went on to say that an alliance would help “strengthen the security and stability of the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia”.

In a separate reply, Mr Needle said that since the Russia-North Korea friendship was forged during the Second World War with the victory over Japan, “strategic and tactical cooperation, support and solidarity” between the two countries has grown to a a new level.

Their joint efforts to frustrate threats and provocations from “hostile military forces”, it said, have bound them.

KCNA does not define “hostile forces”, but they often use that term to refer to the US and
allies.

In July, Kim said North Korea was ready mobilize its nuclear war deterrent power “accurate and timely” in the face of potential military conflicts with the US or South Korea.

Also in July, North Korea recognized two separatist “people’s republics” backed by Russia in the east Ukraine as independent states, and officials raised the prospect that North Korean workers would be sent to these areas to help with construction and other labor.

Ukraine, which has resisted Russia’s invasion since February – described by Moscow as a “special military operation” – immediately cut ties with Pyongyang because of the move.