Kim expresses to Putin his desire to strengthen ties
Seoul, Aug 15 (EFE).- North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un has conveyed his desire to strengthen ties with Russia in a message transmitted to President Vladimir Putin, according to state media on Monday.
Kim sent the letter on the occasion of the celebration of the liberation of the Korean Peninsula from Japanese colonial rule 77 years ago.
He stressed that the “heroic” soldiers of the Red Army dedicated their “blood and precious lives to the struggle for liberating Korea, and merits and feats performed by them are deeply kept in the minds of the Korean people as an eternal monument,” according to the content of the message reported by KCNA.
The friendship between North Korea and Russia was “forged in the anti-Japanese war against the common enemy and has been invariably consolidated and developed” ever since.
Kim added that “strategic and tactical cooperation, support and solidarity” between the two countries are at a high “in the common front for frustrating the hostile forces’ military threat and provocation, and high-handed and arbitrary practices.”
The supreme leader also expressed confidence that these “friendly and cooperative relations” will become “stronger in all fields on the basis of the agreements reached at the 2019 meeting in Vladivostok.”
Kim concluded his message to Putin by wishing him “good health and big success in his responsible work for defending the sovereignty and interests of the country.”
He and Putin met in Vladivostok in April 2019, after the second summit held two months earlier in Hanoi between Kim and former United States president Donald Trump to discuss the disarmament process on the Korean Peninsula.
The dialogue between the US and North Korea has remained frozen since that failed summit, and the peninsula is mired in an arms race due to Pyongyang’s repeated missile tests and the response of opposition allies.
Pyongyang has also hardened its criticism of Washington in recent months, and has blamed the US for causing the “incident in Ukraine” with its “hegemonic policy,” among other pronouncements in support of Moscow’s position in its invasion of the neighboring country. EFE
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