Russian delegation arrives in North Korea after Putin-Kim call

A Russian delegation led by Culture Vice Minister Andrei Maluishev arrived in North Korea on Thursday, state-run media reported, two days after the countries’ leaders vowed to strengthen cooperation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un spoke by phone on Tuesday before Putin meets Donald Trump at a summit in Alaska, where the US president will seek to broker an end to the war in Ukraine.

Friday’s summit in Alaska will be the first between sitting Russian and US leaders since 2021.

North Korea has sent thousands of troops to Russia’s Kursk region, as well as weapons to aid its war effort, with relations between Russia and the North growing closer over the past year.

The flags of both nations were waved enthusiastically as Maluishev’s delegation, which included popular Russian singer Shaman, touched down in Pyongyang.

AFP photos and videos showed them disembarking from the plane along with Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia’s Duma, or lower house of parliament.

They were warmly greeted by North Korean officials and received a military honour guard.

North Korea’s state news agency KCNA said their arrival marked “the 80th anniversary of Korea’s liberation”, a reference to the end of Japan’s occupation of the Korean peninsula at the end of World War II.

Putin expressed appreciation for “the self-sacrificing spirit” of North Korean soldiers during his call with Kim on Tuesday, according to KCNA.

Kim, in turn, pledged that North Korea would “fully support all measures to be taken by the Russian leadership in the future”.

South Korean and Western intelligence agencies have said that Pyongyang sent more than 10,000 soldiers to Russia’s Kursk region in 2024, along with artillery shells, missiles and long-range rocket systems.

Around 600 North Korean soldiers have been killed and thousands more wounded fighting for Russia, South Korea has said.