By Joyce Lee
SEOUL, April 27 (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country would continue to support Russia’s policies and discussed bolstering military ties with Moscow, state media KCNA reported, as analysts said such cooperation looked set to endure beyond the war in Ukraine.
A Russian delegation including Defence Minister Andrei Belousov attended a completion ceremony for a memorial honouring North Korean soldiers killed while fighting in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces staged an incursion in 2024, KCNA said on Monday.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022 and still occupies around a fifth of the country.
Belousov said he had agreed with North Korean officials to put military cooperation on a stable, long-term footing and to sign a cooperation plan covering the 2027 to 2031 period later this year, Russian news agencies reported on Sunday.
The five-year cooperation plan “points to preparations for the post-Ukraine war period,” said Lim Eul-chul, professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University.
“This raises the possibility that their broad political, military and economic alignment is likely to continue even if the war ends, with the relationship entering the stage of an institutional alliance.”
HEAVY CASUALTIES
Kim said in a speech marking the memorial’s completion that North Korean troops fighting alongside Russian forces had “wiped out the aggressors,” adding that this had thwarted what he described as “the United States’ and the West’s hegemonic ambitions and military adventurism”, KCNA said.
“The North Korean government would continue to fully support Russia’s policies of defending its sovereignty, territorial integrity and security interests,” Kim said, according to KCNA.
Russia and North Korea in 2024 signed a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty” during a visit to Pyongyang by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The pact includes a mutual defence provision.
North Korea sent an estimated 14,000 troops to fight with Russian forces in Kursk. South Korean, Ukrainian and Western officials said they suffered heavy casualties with more than 6,000 North Korean soldiers killed in the fighting.
KCNA said Kim discussed with Belousov the international and regional political situation, and a range of issues aimed at further developing military and political cooperation between North Korea and Russia.
In return for sending troops and munitions, Pyongyang has received economic and military technology assistance from Russia, according to South Korean intelligence assessments.
‘STARS OF THE MOTHERLAND’ CONCERT
Kim also met with Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia’s parliament and a close ally of Putin, and reaffirmed the countries’ intention to deepen bilateral ties in line with their comprehensive strategic partnership treaty, KCNA said.
This was echoed in a letter from Putin to mark the memorial’s completion, which said “through joint efforts, Russia and North Korea would continue to strengthen their comprehensive strategic partnership,” according to KCNA.
A memorial concert called “Stars of the Motherland” was also held in honour of the fallen North Korean troops, KCNA said.
Kim has steadily moved to elevate the North Korean troops who fought for Russia in the Kursk region into symbols of sacrifice and loyalty, using state ceremonies and memorial projects to publicly honour their role.
“The souls of the fallen will live forever with the great honour they defended,” Kim said in a handwritten message at the neoclassical-style memorial building on Sunday, according to KCNA.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Ed Davies, Lincoln Feast and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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