PUTIN TO MAKE FRIENDLY VISIT TO NORTH KOREA.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to North Korea on Tuesday for a friendly visit, the Kremlin announced, as the West suspects Pyongyang of supplying Moscow with weapons for its Ukraine offensive.

The visit to the world’s most reclusive state comes as Putin seeks ammunition to continue his military campaign launched in February 2022, which has thrown Moscow into unprecedented global isolation. It also comes nine months after Putin hosted North Korea’s Kim Jong Un on a rare foreign trip to the Russian Far East, where the pair lavished each other with praise.

Western countries, South Korea and Kyiv have accused Pyongyang of sending weapons to Moscow for use in Ukraine, in violation of UN sanctions on North Korea. Washington and Seoul say Russia has in return provided Pyongyang with technical help for its satellite program and sent aid to the food-strapped state.

Putin has scaled down trips abroad since launching the Ukraine offensive, but has paid some high-profile visits to Moscow’s few key allies such as China. Pyongyang rarely hosts foreign guests, isolated diplomatically and having shut itself off even more since the Covid pandemic.

Russia and North Korea, which share a small land border, have historic links since the Soviet Union helped found the tiny state after the Korean War in the 1950s. Since the fall of the USSR, Russia was one of the few countries to have working relations with Pyongyang.