Russia’s Putin to visit North Korea in rare trip as anti-West alignment deepens

CNN —

Vladimir Putin is set to travel to North Korea for a two-day visit starting Tuesday, the Kremlin said, in the Russian president’s first trip to the country in more than two decades – and the latest sign of a deepening alignment that’s raised widespread international concern.

This is a rare overseas trip for Putin since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022 and a key moment for North Korean President Kim Jong Un, who has not hosted another world leader in Pyongyang – among the globe’s most politically isolated capitals – since the Covid-19 pandemic.

The closely watched visit is expected to further cement a burgeoning partnership between the two powers that is founded on their shared animosity toward the West and driven by Putin’s need for support in his ongoing war on Ukraine.

Following his visit to North Korea, Putin will travel to Hanoi Wednesday for another two-day trip, in a display of Communist-governed Vietnam’s ties to Russia that is likely to rankle the United States.

Putin’s trip to North Korea will have a “very eventful” agenda, his aide Yuri Ushakov said during a press conference Monday. Both leaders plan to sign a new strategic partnership, Ushakov said, with main events of the visit scheduled for Wednesday.

Ushakov insisted the agreement is not provocative or aimed against other countries, but is meant to ensure greater stability in northeast Asia. He said the new agreement will replace documents signed between Moscow and Pyongyang in 1961, 2000 and 2001.

“The parties are still working on it, and a final decision regarding its signing will be formed in the coming hours,” Ushakov said, according to Russian state media RIA.