Russia’s Putin to visit North Korea soon, state media says

Seoul, South Korea CNN —

Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to visit Kim Jong Un soon, North Korean state media reported Sunday, the latest sign of increasing cooperation between the two authoritarian leaders as war rages in Ukraine and military tensions increase in East Asia.

Putin thanked Kim for an invitation to visit Pyongyang and pledged to go there “at an early date,” the report from the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the dates for Putin’s visit to North Korea were still being discussed through diplomatic channels and would be announced later, Russian state-run news agency TASS reported.

Last Tuesday, North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui met Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow to discuss issues regarding the Korean Peninsula, Northeast Asia and international peace and security, according to TASS.

At that meeting the two sides expressed a “strong will to further strengthen strategic and tactical cooperation in defending the core interests of the two countries,” KCNA said.

CNN " data-fave-thumbnails="{«big»: { «uri»: «https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/240119103654-screengrab-kim-jung-un.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill» }, «small»: { «uri»: «https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/240119103654-screengrab-kim-jung-un.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill» } }" data-vr-video=«false» data-show-html="" data-byline-html="Andrew McNicol " data-check-event-based-preview="" data-network-id="" data-details=""> Video Ad Feedback Leading American nuclear scientist has a warning about Kim Jong Un 02:48 — Source: CNN

A Putin visit to Pyongyang would reciprocate one Kim made last September, when the North Korean leader traveled