North Korean leader Kim Jong-un gave Pyongyang’s “full support” to Moscow in a Monday (June 12) message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, state media reported. Kim Jong-un sent a congratulatory message to his counterpart on the National Day of Russia, one of the few allied countries of Pyongyang.
The statement published by the North Korean news agency KCNA does not specifically mention the invasion of Ukraine or Moscow’s involvement in an armed conflict, but praises the “good decision and leadership of Mr. Putin […] to thwart growing threats from hostile forces”.
The North Korean people extend “full support and solidarity to the Russian people in their relentless struggle to uphold the sacred cause of preserving the sovereign rights, development and interests of their country against the arbitrary and authoritarian practices of the imperialists”.
North Korea called the conflict a US “proxy war” aimed at destroying Russia, and condemned Western military aid to kyiv. In January, Washington accused North Korea of ??supplying rockets and missiles to the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, which Pyongyang denied.
Washington then claimed in March that it had proof that Moscow was seeking weapons from Pyongyang for its offensive in Ukraine, in exchange for food aid for North Korea, whose economy and agriculture are in ruins.
As a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, Russia has long vetoed new sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear program and repeated missile strikes.
