Putin visits North Korea, He commends Kim Jong Un for his backing of the war in Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, is making his first visit to North Korea in 24 years, and the quiet Communist state is considered as an important source of military support. Putin will be in the country for two days.

TFD – Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in North Korea for the first time in 24 years, seeking military support from Kim Jong Un for his war in Ukraine. Putin’s visit highlights the growing alliance between the two nations amidst international tensions.

South Korea’s SEOUL In a rare visit to the isolated Communist state, Russian President Vladimir Putin touched down in North Korea early on Wednesday, hoping to win support from Kim Jong Un for his war against Ukraine.

Putin is currently in North Korea for the first time in 24 years. As he arrives, North Korean soldiers have breached the heavily guarded border into South Korea twice in as many months, prompting warning gunfire from South Korean military.

In a letter released on Tuesday, Putin thanked North Korea for its assistance in what he refers to as Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine. The letter was published in Rodong Sinmun, the official journal of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party.

In response, he declared that he will back North Korea’s endeavors to safeguard its interests against decades of “military threats, provocation, blackmail, and economic pressure from the United States.”

Putin also made reference to the seeming convergence of the two nations’ hostility against the West, which is motivated by worries about the flow of information and weaponry that would support Kim’s aspirations to become an internationally recognized nuclear state and Putin’s aspirations in Ukraine.

Putin’s visit will include the signing of a comprehensive strategic partnership deal, according to reports from Russian official media on Tuesday. The deal “will not be directed against any countries but is aimed at ensuring greater stability in the Northeast Asia region,” according to Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy advisor.

Because of its nuclear weapons and missile programs, North Korea has long been subject to U.N. Security Council sanctions; meanwhile, Russia is becoming more and more isolated due to Western sanctions related to its conflict in Ukraine. Russia views North Korea as a vital military ally to restock its depleting arsenal.

Putin, according to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller on Monday, has grown “incredibly desperate over the past few months” as a result of defeats in Ukraine and is looking to North Korea and Iran for assistance. He said that in recent months, North Korea has illegally sent more than 11,000 ammunition containers and dozens of ballistic missiles to Russia.

Any shipment of weapons would be against resolutions passed by the UN Security Council, which both nations have rejected.

Prior to the visit, a spokesman for the South Korean Foreign Ministry stated that it had communicated to Russia that any collaboration between North Korea and Russia must not go against resolutions of the U.N. Security Council.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Monday dismissed what he called Kim and Putin’s “lonely bromance.” Delivering more Western air defense systems and weaponry, together with “continue strengthening the diplomatic coalition for just and lasting peace in Ukraine,” was the best course of action, he told Agence France-Presse.

North Korea and Russia have “notably shifted from hiding their illicit activities to flaunting their cooperation,” according to Leif-Eric Easley, an international studies professor at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, even though they will probably keep making denials.

According to an email he sent, “Putin’s visit is partly in recompense to North Korea for serving as a ‘arsenal for autocracy’ in support of his illegal invasion of Ukraine.

According to Easley, the visit also permits North Korean official media to present Kim as a global leader. It comes after Kim’s trip to Russia’s Far East in September of last year, during which he visited a spaceport and Putin made a suggestion that Russia may assist North Korea in developing satellites.

In a letter to Putin on Russia’s National Day last week, Kim exalted the relationship between the two nations, calling North Korea a “invincible comrade-in-arms” with Russia.

Putin’s journey to North Korea, according to Ushakov on Monday, will involve one-on-one meetings, a state reception, an honor guard, and a media statement. The entourage also includes the head of the Russian space agency, Andrei Belousov, the defense minister, and Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister.

Up to thirty North Korean soldiers were reported to have unlawfully crossed the military demarcation line inside the Demilitarized Zone, which divides South and North Korea, by South Korean officials just hours before Putin arrived. The 1950–1953 Korean War ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, meaning that the two nations are officially still at war.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea reported that after the South Korean military fired warning shots and aired warning messages, the North Korean soldiers—some of them were highly armed—retreated to the North Korean side.

The site of the border crossing differs from that of a brief, comparable intrusion on June 9, which South Korean investigators suspect was also not intentional.

According to South Korean officials, the North Korean soldiers were working along the border on various projects on both occasions, such as setting mines, building fences, and creating roadways for military use. Since North Korea announced in November that it was terminating a 2018 military pact meant to ease tensions between the two Koreas, such work has been carried out.

This month, in reaction to a series of trash-filled balloons that the North had sent into the South, South Korea announced that it was also completely suspending the pact.

On Tuesday, South Korean officials stated that they thought the detonation of North Korean land mines along the border had resulted in several deaths among North Korean soldiers.

They declared, “North Korean soldiers are unjustifiably carrying out their work in spite of these mishaps and losses.”

Mithil Aggarwal reported from Hong Kong, and Stella Kim reported from Seoul, South Korea.