Xi, Putin pledge closer ties with North Korea in anniversary messages
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin, left, shakes hands with China's President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Aug. 31. AFP-Yonhap
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to strengthen ties with North Korea in congratulatory letters sent to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on the country's 78th founding anniversary, state-run media said Wednesday.
Xi praised a series of "development successes" in North Korea spurred by Kim's focus on "economic and social construction," the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported.
"It is the consistent and steadfast policy of the Chinese party and government to successfully defend, consolidate and develop the China-DPRK relations," Xi wrote, according to KCNA.
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.
Xi said his visit to Pyongyang in June opened up a "new chapter" in relations between the two countries and vowed to work together to "accelerate the development of each side's party and state affairs."
China has long been North Korea's largest trading partner, and international observers say it continues to help Pyongyang skirt punishing economic sanctions.
Ties had appeared to cool in recent years, however, as North Korea deepened military cooperation with Russia. In recent months, the relationship has shown signs of renewed momentum, with several high-level exchanges, including a visit by Kim to Beijing last September.
In his letter, Putin also praised the North's "remarkable successes in the socio-economic fields" and said Pyongyang had "extremely strengthened its position in the world arena," according to KCNA.
Putin said he would "continue to do the closest joint work to further consolidate the comprehensive strategic partnership between our countries."
"This fully conforms to the interests of the peoples of the Russian Federation and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and will contribute to ensuring regional security and establishing a new, more just and multi-polarized world order," he wrote.
North Korea has deepened military ties with Russia since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Pyongyang has shipped thousands of containers of munitions and deployed about 15,000 troops to assist Russian forces in the Kursk region, South Korea's National Intelligence Service has said, estimating that roughly 2,000 of those troops have been killed.
Last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Pyongyang was preparing to deploy an additional 30,000 to 50,000 personnel to Russia and had supplied Moscow with additional ballistic missiles. He warned that the battlefield experience North Korea was gaining in Russia posed a mounting threat to countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of Kim Jong-un, called reports of additional troop deployments an "ungrounded farce of Kiev."
Kim also received congratulatory letters from the leaders of countries including Vietnam, Cambodia, Mongolia, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Belarus, Bahrain and Zimbabwe, KCNA reported.