Alert in the West: the North Korean regime announced that Vladimir Putin is willing to visit Pyongyang “soon”

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North Korean regime announces Putin is ready to visit Pyongyang “soon”

The North Korean regime affirmed this Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his willingness to visit the country in the near future, in response to dictator Kim Jong-un’s invitation during their summit last year.

According to the North Korean propaganda agency KCNA, Putin communicated his wish to Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui during her recent visit to Russia between January 15 and 17. During the meeting, Choe conveyed Kim’s “warm greetings” to Putin, who thanked Putin for the invitation to visit Pyongyang and expressed his willingness to do so in the near future, as per KCNA.

“The government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea warmly welcomes President Putin and is ready to receive the closest friend of the Korean people,” Choe said in a statement.

This statement comes after Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov stated earlier this week that Moscow expected Putin’s visit to North Korea to take place “in the foreseeable future.”

The head of North Korean diplomacy, Choe Son-hui, stated that her country is “ready to receive” the Russian president, in a new sign of military and economic collaboration between both nations.

Russia and North Korea have strengthened ties with a visit by Kim Jong-un to the Russian Far East in September last year, where he met with Putin.

Both countries are subject to international sanctions for their respective nuclear and ballistic programs, and have been accused by the West of supporting each other in the Ukraine crisis.

The growing military and economic collaboration between Russia and the dictatorship of Kim Jong-un has raised concerns in the United States and South Korea, who see it as a threat to regional stability.

Washington has denounced that Pyongyang has sent missiles and launchers to Moscow, in what it called a “significant and worrying escalation” of support for the Russian campaign in Ukraine.

Seoul, meanwhile, has accused the North Korean regime of providing more than a million artillery shells in exchange for advice on military satellite technology.

On Friday, North Korea tested an “underwater nuclear weapons system” in response to joint naval exercises by Washington, Seoul and Tokyo, involving a US nuclear aircraft carrier.

The situation on the Korean Peninsula has worsened in recent months, with both sides abandoning a key agreement to contain tensions, and increasing their border security and conducting live-fire drills along the border.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un last week declared the South his “main enemy” and dissolved government agencies dedicated to promoting cooperation and reunification of the peninsula.

He also threatened war if Seoul violated “even 0.001 millimeters” of its territory.

Ahn Chan-il, a North Korean defector turned analyst at the World Institute for North Korean Studies, said it was “difficult to determine the exact capabilities” of Pyongyang’s suspected undersea nuclear weapons system.

In his usual political meeting at the end of the year, Kim threatened with a nuclear attack against the South and called for strengthening his country’s military arsenal in the face of a war that could “break out at any moment.”