opinion

An agreement on economic and cultural cooperation between the DPRK and the USSR was concluded on March 17 1949, providing an important legal guarantee for further consolidating and developing the friendly relations between the two countries.

Under this agreement, the two countries developed economic relations on the principle of cooperation, equality and mutual benefit and deepened the friendly feelings while actively conducting visits and exchanges in the fields of culture and the arts over the past several decades. It gave a powerful impetus to steadily strengthening and developing the DPRK-Russia friendly relations.

The friendship between the DPRK and Russia has a long historical tradition.

The feelings of comradeship and friendship forged between the peoples of the two countries in the joint struggle against imperialism developed into friendly relations between the states. And they have faithfully been carried forward and developed generation after generation on the basis of the spirit of respect for sovereignty, equality and cooperation even in the tempest of history.

In recent years the DPRK-Russia friendly relations have been further expanded and strengthened into those of mutually beneficial cooperation in all fields under the deep care of the top leaders of the two countries.

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un strengthened the DPRK-Russia friendly relations still further through the significant meeting with Russian President Putin in April 2019. It was an epochal event that put the bilateral ties with a long history and tradition on a new, higher stage.

The top leaders of the two countries met again in September 2023 and June 2024 and openheartedly discussed the long-term plans for promoting mutual trust by further revitalizing the many-sided bilateral exchanges and cooperation. They discussed the issue of lifting the relations between the two countries to a comprehensive strategic partnership and expanding them in an all-round way and reached a perfect consensus of views, and satisfactorily agreed on the important issues arising in defending regional and global peace and international justice and on the immediate matters for cooperation.

The close bond between the DPRK and the Russian Federation, whose common ideal is to achieve independence and justice, is growing stronger with the passage of time, ushering in a period of full efflorescence amid the special comradely friendship and trust between heads of state of the two countries.

On December 4 2024, the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the DPRK and the Russian Federation came into force. The ratification instruments of the treaty were exchanged in Moscow. As a result, a legal framework was provided for the two countries to lift the bilateral relations to a new strategic level and build powerful states while firmly defending the security environment of the region and the rest of the world in conformity with their common interests.

It is the consistent stand of the DPRK government to attach importance to the DPRK-Russia friendly relations and invariably develop the tradition of deep-rooted friendship.