President Vladimir Putin has written a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un which was sent on Pyongyang’s Liberation Day on 15 August, saying Russia and North Korea will expand their relations.
According to a report by North Korean state media outlet Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Mr Putin said the expanded bilateral relations would “conform with the interests of the two countries and would help strengthen the security and stability of the Korean peninsula and the Northeastern Asian region”.
Kim also sent a letter to Putin saying Russian-North Korean friendship had been forged in World War II with victory over Japan, which had occupied the Korean peninsula.
The “strategic and tactical cooperation, support and solidarity” between the two countries have since reached a new level in their common efforts to frustrate threats and provocations from hostile military forces, Kim said in the letter.
