This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
Russian Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov is visiting North Korea to improve cooperation, his office said, marking the first visit by a chief Russian prosecutor to the isolated North.
Krasnov, on his first visit to North Korea, will meet his North Korean counterpart and discuss issues of bilateral cooperation, his office said in a statement posted on its website on Monday.
He will also sign a “cooperation agreement” between prosecutors’ offices from the two countries for the period 2024 to 2026, it added, without providing details.
North Korea and Russia have expanded cooperation in various sectors following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s trip to Pyongyang last month for summit talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The two discussed bolstering their economic and security relations and they underscored their shared defiance of Western sanctions.
Under a new partnership treaty announced at their summit, Putin and Kim agreed to offer each other military assistance “without delay” if either were attacked.
Russia has been cozying up to North Korea since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The United States has accused North Korea of sending Russia weapons for use in its Ukraine war but both North Korea and Russia deny that.
Last week, the North’s Kim met a Russian military delegation, led by Russia’s vice defense minister, Aleksey Krivoruchko, in Pyongyang, and discussed the “importance and necessity” of military cooperation.
Minister from Belarus
Amid the deepening cooperation between North Korea and Russia, the foreign minister of staunch Russian ally Belarus will visit North Korea this week, the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, reported.
Belarus, which shares borders with Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, has been supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Foreign Minister Maxim Vladimirovich Ruzenkov will pay an official visit to Pyongyang from Tuesday to Friday, the KCNA said, without giving details of his itinerary.
In September last year, the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, suggested trilateral cooperation between Russia, North Korea and Belarus during a meeting with Putin.
In April, Belarusian Deputy Foreign Minister Evgeny Shestakov visited the North and met Vice Foreign Minister Im Chon Il. They agreed to strengthen high-level contacts and exchanges.
At that time, the two sides also agreed to promote cooperation in economic and cultural fields, and to closely support each other and cooperate in the international arena.
