Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov landed in North Korea for a three-day state visit today, according to Russian state media.
Lavrov is visiting the newly developed coastal resort of Wonson, where North Korea hopes to build its tourism industry with Russian tourists.
Lavrov had previously been at the 32nd Regional Summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Lavrov met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio yesterday at the summit, where Rubio said that the Russians had revealed “some fresh ideas” about Ukraine peace talks that he would take back to US President Donald Trump, according to the Kyiv Post.
Details were scant about the nature of the meeting between Russia and North Korea, often called the “hermit kingdom” because of its secretive and isolated nature, but the leaders will likely discuss North Korea’s military cooperation for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Last summer, North Korea committed 11,000 troops to fight in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukraine had launched an incursion in July 2024.
North Korean troops in Ukraine have had a very high casualty rate, but reports emerged on July 2 that Pyongyang plans to triple its troop deployment to as high as 30,000 troops this year to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s spy chief, Kyrilo Budanov, told Bloomberg today that North Korea provides up to 40% of the ammunition that Russia uses in Ukraine, such as artillery shells and ballistic missiles, as it blows through its Soviet stockpiles and struggles to keep up with industrial production of weapons.
In return, Pyongyang receives financial assistance, food, and technology from Moscow.