North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone call to discuss their deepening ties and war efforts against Ukraine, both countries' state media said Wednesday. The phone call comes as Putin gets set to meet with US President Donald Trump in the US state of Alaska this Friday to discuss a ceasefire proposal on Moscow's all-out war in Ukraine. According to North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, Putin praised the "bravery, heroism and self-sacrificing spirit" displayed by North Korean troops as they fought together with Russian forces against a Ukrainian incursion into Russia's Kursk border region, during the call. Putin also shared with Kim information about his upcoming talks with Trump, scheduled to take place Friday in Alaska, according to Russia's state-run Tass news agency, citing the Kremlin. The North Korean reports did not mention the Trump meeting. Kim told Putin that Pyongyang will fully support "all measures to be taken by the Russian leadership in the future, too," as they discussed advancing ties in "all fields" under a strategic partnership agreement they signed during a summit last year, KCNA said. In recent years, Russia and North Korea have developed stronger ties, with Pyongyang providing Russia with personnel and munitions. A mutual defence deal was struck between the two nations during Putin's visit to the isolated dictatorship last year. And since Russia invaded Ukraine, Kim has made Moscow the priority of his foreign policy as he aims to break out of diplomatic isolation and expand relations with countries confronting Washington. His government has dismissed Washington and Seoul's stated desires to restart diplomacy aimed at defusing the North's nuclear program, which derailed in 2019 following a collapsed summit with Trump during his first term. In April this year, Pyongyang acknowledged for the first time that it sent a group of its soldiers to fight side by side with Russian troops. According to South Korean assessments, North Korea has sent around 15,000 troops to Russia since October last year and also supplied large quantities of military equipment, including artillery and ballistic missiles, in support of Moscow's war. Kim has also agreed to send thousands of military construction workers and deminers to Russia's Kursk region, a deployment South Korean intelligence believes could happen soon. — Euronews
