SEOUL, South Korea — Russian President Vladimir Putin sat down with North Korea’s foreign minister at the Kremlin on Sunday, using the occasion to express appreciation for Pyongyang’s backing of his military campaign in Ukraine, according to reports from Russian state media.
North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui made the trip to Moscow without a clear diplomatic trigger — no major multilateral event or national anniversary appeared to prompt the visit. That unusual timing has led some observers to wonder whether she may be laying the groundwork for a potential trip to Russia by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. North Korean state media confirmed Choe left for Russia on Saturday at the invitation of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, but offered no explanation for the purpose of her journey.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry, the government body responsible for North Korea-related affairs, said Monday that Seoul is keeping a close eye on the meetings. A ministry spokesperson, Yoon Min Ho, stopped short of saying whether Moscow and Pyongyang were discussing another leader-to-leader summit.
Russia’s Tass news agency reported that during the Kremlin meeting, Putin praised the state of relations between the two countries and once again expressed his “gratitude to the North Korean leadership and people” for their support of Russia’s military operations against Ukraine. For her part, Choe conveyed to Putin that Kim remains dedicated to the “comprehensive development” of ties with Russia, according to Tass.
Kim has previously traveled to Russia’s Far East for summits with Putin, meeting in both 2019 and 2023. During a June 2024 summit held in Pyongyang, Putin extended a fresh invitation for Kim to visit Russia, and the two leaders signed a strategic partnership agreement committing each side to mutual assistance in the event of an attack.
In recent years, Kim has made Russia the centerpiece of his foreign policy agenda. He has dispatched thousands of soldiers and large quantities of weapons to bolster Putin’s war effort in Ukraine — moves that some analysts believe are being rewarded with economic assistance and technology transfers that could be strengthening North Korea’s own military capabilities.
Kim has also been working to deepen his country’s relationship with China. He hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping for a June summit in Pyongyang, aligning himself with the concept of a “new Cold War” and positioning North Korea as part of a broader coalition opposing Washington.
Choe’s Moscow visit followed a flurry of diplomatic activity between North Korea and China. This month, North Korean Cabinet premier Pak Thae Song — Kim’s leading economic official — traveled to Beijing to meet with Xi, while Wang Huning, a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party’s powerful Politburo Standing Committee, made a visit to Kim in Pyongyang.
Kim cut off all substantive dialogue with both the United States and South Korea following the breakdown of his nuclear negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump in 2019. He has since used Russia’s war in Ukraine as cover to speed up development of his nuclear weapons and missile programs, while insisting that Washington drop its demand for North Korean denuclearization before any talks can resume.
