Russia’s Putin meets with North Korean official amid reports of troop deployment to Ukraine

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin met with a senior North Korean official in Moscow earlier this week, Pyongyang’s state media said Saturday.

The meeting on Thursday occurred on the same day that South Korea’s spy agency said the North had dispatched more troops to Russia for its war efforts in Ukraine, without disclosing how many.

Seoul’s intelligence also said North Korea had redeployed its soldiers to the front line in Kursk, where Ukraine previously said they had been withdrawn following heavy losses.

Ri Hi Yong, a member of North Korea’s Politburo and secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, met with Putin in the Kremlin, the official Korean Central News Agency said.

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During the meeting, Putin thanked North Korea for “its positive support to the Russian Federation”, it said.

The Kremlin confirmed the meeting in a statement on Thursday.

Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang has officially acknowledged that North Koreans have been deployed to fight against Ukraine.

The two countries have boosted their military cooperation since Russia launched its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

European leaders threw their support behind Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday after a televised spat at the White House between the Ukrainian leader and US President Donald Trump cast doubts over efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

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