INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Shafaq News / Russian President Vladimir Putin told North Korean leader Kim Jong Un the two countries will "expand the comprehensive and
constructive bilateral relations with common efforts," Pyongyang's state media reported on Monday.In a letter to Kim for Korea's liberation
day, Putin said closer ties would be in both countries' interests, and would help strengthen the security and stability of the Korean
peninsula and the Northeastern Asian region, North Korea's KCNA news agency said.Kim also sent a letter to Putin saying Russian-North Korean
friendship had been forged in World War II with victory over Japan, which had occupied the Korean peninsula.The "strategic and tactical
cooperation, support and solidarity" between the two countries has since reached a new level is their common efforts to frustrate threats
and provocations from hostile military forces, Kim said in the letter
KCNA did not identify the hostile forces, but it has typically used that term to refer to the United States and its allies.Kim predicted
cooperation between Russia and North Korea would grow based on an agreement signed in 2019 when he met with Putin.North Korea in July
recognised two Russian-backed breakaway "people's republics" in eastern Ukraine as independent states, and officials raised the prospect of
North Korean workers being sent to the areas to help in construction and other labour.Ukraine, which is resisting a Russian invasion
described by Moscow as a "special military operation", immediately severed relations with Pyongyang over the move.(Reuters)
