The Russian president will make a state visit on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Kremlin says.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit North Korea this week for the first time in 24 years, the two countries say, a rare trip that underscores Moscow's growing partnership with the nuclear-armed state.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un extended an invitation to Putin when Kim visited Russia's Far East in September.
“At the invitation of DPRK Chairman of State Affairs Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin will pay a friendly state visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on June 18 and 19,” the Kremlin said on Monday.
North Korea's state news agency, KCNA, also announced the visit but did not offer further details.
Putin last visited Pyongyang in July 2000, four months after he was first elected president. He met with Kim's father, Kim Jong Il, who then ruled the country.
Moscow has said it “highly appreciates” Pyongyang's support for Russia's military action in Ukraine and cited its “close and fruitful cooperation” at the United Nations and other international organizations.
There are growing concerns about an arms deal in which Pyongyang would provide Moscow with much-needed munitions to fuel Putin's war in Ukraine in exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers that would increase the threat posed by Kim's nuclear weapons and missile programs.
During a phone call with South Korea's deputy foreign minister on Friday, US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell expressed concern that Putin's visit to North Korea would lead to greater military cooperation between the two countries that would potentially undermine stability in the region, the Seoul Ministry reported. the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Military, economic and other cooperation between North Korea and Russia has increased dramatically since Kim's visit to the Russian Far East to meet with Putin, his first since 2019.
Any arms trade with North Korea would be a violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions that Russia, a permanent member of the council, previously supported.
Andrei Lankov, a North Korea expert at Kookmin University in Seoul, told The Associated Press news agency that in exchange for providing artillery munitions and short-range ballistic missiles, Pyongyang hopes to obtain high-end weapons from Moscow.
Lankov added that while Russia might be reluctant to share its cutting-edge military technologies with North Korea, it would be eager to receive munitions from Pyongyang.
“There is never enough ammunition in a war. There is a great demand for them,” he stated.
In recent months, Russia has gone to great lengths to publicize the rebirth of its relationship with North Korea since the start of the war in Ukraine, causing alarm among the United States and its allies in Europe and Asia.
For Putin, who has said Russia is locked in an existential battle with the West over Ukraine, courting Kim allows him to irritate Washington and its Asian allies.
In addition to North Korea, Putin will also visit Vietnam on Wednesday and Thursday.
