North Korean leader Kim Jong-un expressed his country’s “firm solidarity” with Russia in a message to President Vladimir Putin commemorating Moscow’s “Victory Day,” Pyongyang’s state media reported on Tuesday.
Kim congratulated Putin on the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s WWII victory over Nazi Germany, according to the North’s official newspaper Rodong Sinmun and the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
On Monday, Russia marked the 77th anniversary of the holiday.
Kim’s message “extended firm solidarity to the cause of the Russian people to root out the political and military threat and blackmail by the hostile forces and safeguard the country’s dignity, peace and security”, Yonhap News Agency quoted the KCNA as saying in an English-language article.
“It expressed belief that the strategic and traditional relations of friendship between the two countries would steadily develop in conformity with the requirements of the times,” it added.
The North has recently emphasized its historic ties with Russia, which has been condemned by many countries for its invasion of Ukraine.
In February, a spokesperson for the North’s Foreign Ministry blamed the Ukraine crisis on the US and Western “hegemonic policy.”
