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.



Iran Could Again Enrich Uranium 'in Matter of Months', Says IAEA Chief

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, listens to the speech of President of the World Bank Group (WBG), Ajay Banga (not pictured), as they sign a partnership on new nuclear energy for development effort at the WBG headquarters in Paris, France, 26 June 2025. (EPA)
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, listens to the speech of President of the World Bank Group (WBG), Ajay Banga (not pictured), as they sign a partnership on new nuclear energy for development effort at the WBG headquarters in Paris, France, 26 June 2025. (EPA)
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Iran Could Again Enrich Uranium 'in Matter of Months', Says IAEA Chief

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, listens to the speech of President of the World Bank Group (WBG), Ajay Banga (not pictured), as they sign a partnership on new nuclear energy for development effort at the WBG headquarters in Paris, France, 26 June 2025. (EPA)
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, listens to the speech of President of the World Bank Group (WBG), Ajay Banga (not pictured), as they sign a partnership on new nuclear energy for development effort at the WBG headquarters in Paris, France, 26 June 2025. (EPA)

UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi says Iran likely will be able to begin to produce enriched uranium "in a matter of months," despite damage to several nuclear facilities from US and Israeli attacks, CBS News said Saturday.

Israel launched a bombing campaign on Iranian nuclear and military sites on June 13, saying it was aimed at keeping Iran from developing a nuclear weapon -- an ambition Tehran has consistently denied.

The United States subsequently bombed three key facilities used for Tehran's atomic program.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says the extent of the damage to the nuclear sites is "serious," but the details are unknown. US President Donald Trump insisted Iran's nuclear program had been set back "decades."

But Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said "some is still standing."

"They can have, you know, in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium, or less than that," Grossi said Friday, according to a transcript of the interview released Saturday.

Another key question is whether Iran was able to relocate some or all of its estimated 408.6-kilo (900-pound) stockpile of highly enriched uranium before the attacks.

The uranium in question is enriched to 60 percent -- above levels for civilian usage but still below weapons grade. That material, if further refined, would theoretically be sufficient to produce more than nine nuclear bombs.

Grossi admitted to CBS: "We don't know where this material could be."

"So some could have been destroyed as part of the attack, but some could have been moved. So there has to be at some point a clarification," he said in the interview.

For now, Iranian lawmakers voted to suspend cooperation with the IAEA and Tehran rejected Grossi's request for a visit to the damaged sites, especially Fordo, the main uranium enrichment facility.

"We need to be in a position to ascertain, to confirm what is there, and where is it and what happened," Grossi said.

In a separate interview with Fox News's "Sunday Morning Futures" program, Trump said he did not think the stockpile had been moved.

"It's a very hard thing to do plus we didn't give much notice," he said, according to excerpts of the interview. "They didn't move anything."

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday underscored Washington's support for "the IAEA's critical verification and monitoring efforts in Iran," commending Grossi and his agency for their "dedication and professionalism."

The full Grossi interview will air on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Sunday.