North Korea Stresses Alignment with Russia against US, Says Putin Could Visit at an ‘Early Date’

North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui arrives to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. (Artyom Geodakyan/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)
North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui arrives to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. (Artyom Geodakyan/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)
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North Korea Stresses Alignment with Russia against US, Says Putin Could Visit at an ‘Early Date’

North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui arrives to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. (Artyom Geodakyan/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)
North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui arrives to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. (Artyom Geodakyan/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

North Korea said Sunday it has agreed to further strategic and tactical cooperation with Russia to establish a “new multi-polarized international order,” as the two countries work to build a united front in the face of their separate, intensifying tensions with the United States.

In describing North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui’s meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minster Sergei Lavrov in Moscow last week, the North’s Foreign Ministry said Putin also reaffirmed his willingness to visit Pyongyang and said that could come at an “early date.”

North Korea has been actively strengthening its ties with Russia, highlighted by leader Kim Jong Un’s September visit to Russia for a summit with Putin. Kim is trying to break out of diplomatic isolation and strengthen his footing as he navigates a deepening nuclear standoff with Washington, Seoul and Tokyo.

In a separate statement on Sunday, the North’s Foreign Ministry condemned the UN Security Council for calling an emergency meeting over the country’s latest ballistic test, which state media described as a new intermediate-range solid-fuel missile tipped with a hypersonic warhead. The ministry said the test-firing on Jan. 14 was among the country’s regular activities to improve its defense capabilities and that it didn’t pose a threat to its neighbors.

South Korea on Thursday urged the Security Council “to break the silence” over North Korea’s escalating missile tests and threats. Russia and China, both permanent members of the council, have blocked US-led efforts to increase sanctions on North Korea over its recent weapons tests, underscoring a divide deepened over Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The alignment between Pyongyang and Moscow has raised international concerns about alleged arms cooperation, in which the North provides Russia with munitions to help prolong its fighting in Ukraine, possibly in exchange for badly needed economic aid and military assistance to help upgrade Kim’s forces. Both Pyongyang and Russia have denied accusations by Washington and Seoul about North Korean arms transfers to Russia.

North Korea's Foreign Ministry, in comments published by state media, said Choe and the Russian officials in their meetings expressed a “strong will to further strengthen strategic and tactical cooperation in defending the core interests of the two countries and establishing a new multi-polarized international order.”

Russia expressed “deep thanks” to North Korea for its “full support” over its war on Ukraine, the North Korean ministry said. It said Choe and the Russian officials expressed “serious concern” over the United States’ expanding military cooperation with its Asian allies that they blamed for worsening tensions in the region and threatening North Korea’s sovereignty and security interests.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest point in years, after Kim in recent months used Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a distraction to ramp up his weapons tests and military demonstrations. The United States, South Korea and Japan have responded by strengthening their combined military exercises, which Kim portrays as invasion rehearsals, and sharpening their deterrence plans built around nuclear-capable US assets.

In the latest tit-for-tat, North Korea on Friday said it conducted a test of a purported nuclear-capable underwater attack drone in response to a combined naval exercise by the United States, South Korea and Japan last week, as it continued to blame its rivals for tensions in the region.

Choe’s visit to Moscow came as Kim continues to use domestic political events to issue provocative threats of nuclear conflict.

At Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp parliament last week, Kim declared that North Korea is abandoning its long-standing goal of a peaceful unification with war-divided rival South Korea and ordered the rewriting of the North’s constitution to cement the South as its most hostile foreign adversary. He accused South Korea of acting as “top-class stooges” of the Americans and repeated a threat that he would use his nukes to annihilate the South if provoked.

Analysts say North Korea could be aiming to diminish South Korea’s voice in the regional nuclear standoff and eventually force direct dealings with Washington as it looks to cement its status as a nuclear weapons state.



Trump Administration Weighs Adding 36 Countries to Travel Ban, Memo Says

 President Donald Trump, right, speaks with reporters as Secretary of State Marco Rubio listens upon arriving at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, NJ, en route to Camp David, Md., Sunday, June 8, 2025. (AP)
President Donald Trump, right, speaks with reporters as Secretary of State Marco Rubio listens upon arriving at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, NJ, en route to Camp David, Md., Sunday, June 8, 2025. (AP)
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Trump Administration Weighs Adding 36 Countries to Travel Ban, Memo Says

 President Donald Trump, right, speaks with reporters as Secretary of State Marco Rubio listens upon arriving at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, NJ, en route to Camp David, Md., Sunday, June 8, 2025. (AP)
President Donald Trump, right, speaks with reporters as Secretary of State Marco Rubio listens upon arriving at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, NJ, en route to Camp David, Md., Sunday, June 8, 2025. (AP)

US President Donald Trump's administration is considering significantly expanding its travel restrictions by potentially banning citizens of 36 additional countries from entering the United States, according to an internal State Department cable seen by Reuters.

Earlier this month, the Republican president signed a proclamation that banned the entry of citizens from 12 countries, saying the move was needed to protect the United States against "foreign terrorists" and other national security threats.

The directive was part of an immigration crackdown Trump launched this year at the start of his second term, which has included the deportation to El Salvador of hundreds of Venezuelans suspected of being gang members, as well as efforts to deny enrollments of some foreign students from US universities and deport others.

In an internal diplomatic cable signed by U. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the State Department outlined a dozen concerns about the countries in question and sought corrective action.

"The Department has identified 36 countries of concern that might be recommended for full or partial suspension of entry if they do not meet established benchmarks and requirements within 60 days," the cable sent out over the weekend said.

The cable was first reported by the Washington Post.

Among the concerns the State Department raised was the lack of a competent or cooperative government by some of the countries mentioned to produce reliable identity documents, the cable said. Another was "questionable security" of that country's passport.

Some countries, the cable said, were not cooperative in facilitating the removal of its nationals from the United States who were ordered to be removed. Some countries were overstaying the US visas their citizens were being granted.

Other reasons for concern were the nationals of the country were involved in acts of terrorism in the United States, or antisemitic and anti-American activity.

The cable noted that not all of these concerns pertained to every country listed. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The countries that could face a full or a partial ban if they do not address these concerns within the next 60 days are: Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cote D'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Dominica, Ethiopia, Egypt, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, South Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

That would be a significant expansion of the ban that came into effect earlier this month. The countries affected were Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

The entry of people from seven other countries - Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela - has also been partially restricted.

During his first in office, Trump announced a ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations, a policy that went through several iterations before it was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018.