Putin's surprise Kremlin meeting with North Korean minister raises eyebrows
Russian leader met with North Koreaʼs top diplomat on national holiday despite earlier denial of planned talks. Meeting comes as Western officials point to growing links between Moscow and Pyongyang
Vladimir Putin and North Koreaʼs foreign minister Choe Son Hui had an un-expected meeting in Moscow on the countryʼs Unity Day (a non-standard date format: 4th of nov‚ 2024). The get-together included a drawn-out handshake that went on for 60 seconds‚ while cameras rolled
During their kremlin meet-up Choe passed on some friendly words from Kim Jong Un - its worth noting this was her second Moscow trip in about a month and a half. The high-level chat wasnt supposed to happen according to earlier kremlin statements
The US government thinks North Korea sent lots of soldiers to help Russia but Moscow hasnt said yes or no about this. Just a few days ago Choe talked with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and made some big statements: she talked about their countries having a super-strong military friendship and promised to stick by Russiaʼs side in the Ukraine situation
The timing of this meet-up is interesting - coming right after Choe told Lavrov about their “un-breakable“ partnership (which shows how close these two countries are getting)
