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Russia’s Putin to Visit North Korea on June 18-19

Russia's President Vladimir Putin visits Senezh Management Workshop before a meeting with participants of the "Time of Heroes" project established for Russian service members, who were involved in the country's military campaign in Ukraine and study to take up leadership positions in the state administration system, in the Moscow region's city of Solnechnogorsk, Russia June 14, 2024. (Sputnik/Alexander Kazakov/Pool via Reuters)
Russia's President Vladimir Putin visits Senezh Management Workshop before a meeting with participants of the "Time of Heroes" project established for Russian service members, who were involved in the country's military campaign in Ukraine and study to take up leadership positions in the state administration system, in the Moscow region's city of Solnechnogorsk, Russia June 14, 2024. (Sputnik/Alexander Kazakov/Pool via Reuters)
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Russia’s Putin to Visit North Korea on June 18-19

Russia's President Vladimir Putin visits Senezh Management Workshop before a meeting with participants of the "Time of Heroes" project established for Russian service members, who were involved in the country's military campaign in Ukraine and study to take up leadership positions in the state administration system, in the Moscow region's city of Solnechnogorsk, Russia June 14, 2024. (Sputnik/Alexander Kazakov/Pool via Reuters)
Russia's President Vladimir Putin visits Senezh Management Workshop before a meeting with participants of the "Time of Heroes" project established for Russian service members, who were involved in the country's military campaign in Ukraine and study to take up leadership positions in the state administration system, in the Moscow region's city of Solnechnogorsk, Russia June 14, 2024. (Sputnik/Alexander Kazakov/Pool via Reuters)

Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit North Korea on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Kremlin said, an extremely rare trip that underscores Moscow's burgeoning partnership with the reclusive nuclear-armed state.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un extended an invite to Putin during a visit to Russia's Far East last September. Putin has not visited Pyongyang since July 2000.

"At the invitation of the Chairman of State Affairs of the DPRK, Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin will pay a friendly state visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on June 18-19," the Kremlin said.

After North Korea, Putin will visit Vietnam on June 19-20, the Kremlin said.

Russia has gone out of its way to publicize the renaissance of its relationship with North Korea since the start of the war in Ukraine, which has triggered the biggest crisis for more than 60 years in Moscow's relationship with the West.

For Putin, who says Russia is locked in an existential battle with the West over Ukraine, courting Kim allows him to needle Washington and its Asian allies while securing a deep supply of artillery for the Ukraine war.

The United States and its allies say North Korea has supplied weapons to Russia to help it fight in Ukraine, though North Korea has repeatedly denied the claims as fiction invented by Western propagandists.

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North Korea Blames South's Military for Drone Intrusion

FILE - North Korean balloons are seen from the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, on Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)
FILE - North Korean balloons are seen from the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, on Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)
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North Korea Blames South's Military for Drone Intrusion

FILE - North Korean balloons are seen from the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, on Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)
FILE - North Korean balloons are seen from the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, on Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)

North Korea's defense ministry blamed South Korea's military for sending drones into its territory for political purposes, calling it an infringement upon the country's sovereignty, state media KCNA said on Monday.
The ministry announced final results of its investigation after claiming that South Korean drones flew over Pyongyang at least three times this month to distribute anti-North leaflets. KCNA has also published photos of what it described as a crashed South Korean military drone, Reuters said.
During an analysis of the drone's flight control program, North Korean authorities said they uncovered more than 230 flight plans and flight logs since June 2023, including a plan to scatter "political motivational rubbish."
An Oct. 8 record showed that the drone had departed the South's border island of Baengnyeongdo late at night and released leaflets over the foreign and defense ministry buildings in Pyongyang a few hours later.
Seoul's defense ministry did not immediately have comment but has said Pyongyang's unilateral claims were "not worth verifying or a response."
A North Korean spokesperson warned that the country would respond with "merciless offensive" if such a case recurs, KCNA said.
Tensions between the Koreas have rekindled since the North began flying balloons carrying trash into the South in late May, prompting the South to restart loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts.
Seoul and Washington have said North Korea has sent 3,000 troops to Russia for possible deployment in Ukraine, which could mean a significant escalation in their conflict. Pyongyang said on Friday that any move to send its troops to support Russia would be in line with international law.