Putin accepts Kim’s invitation to visit North Korea, report claims
Vladimir Putin has accepted Kim Jong Un’s invitation to visit North Korea, according to the country’s state news agency.
While there was no immediate confirmation from Moscow, KCNA reports the Russian president will visit “at a convenient time”.
Kim is currently in Russia, where he has vowed to support the Kremlin’s “sacred war” against Ukraine, raising concerns the two nations could bolster their military capabilities.
Read more: Explosions reported in Crimea – Ukraine war latest
“At the end of the reception, Kim Jong Un courteously invited Putin to visit the DPRK at a convenient time,” KCNA reports, referring to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the country’s formal name.
“Putin accepted the invitation with pleasure and reaffirmed his will to invariably carry forward the history and tradition of the Russia-DPRK friendship.”
The two leaders toasted their friendship on Wednesday with Russian wine after Mr Putin showed Kim around the country’s most modern space launch facility.
They also held talks alongside their defence ministers and called each other “comrades”.
The burgeoning friendship has concerned the West, with Washington accusing North Korea of providing weapons to Russia.
It is not clear if any deliveries have been made and the two states have denied those claims in any case – but they did promise to deepen defence cooperation.
Kim is due on Thursday to visit military and civilian aviation factories in the Russian city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur and to inspect Russia’s Pacific fleet in Vladivostok, Mr Putin said.
What kind of weapons could North Korea provide?
Aidan Foster-Carter, a researcher in sociology and modern Korea at Leeds University, told Sky News North Korea can probably supply “good quality ammunitions” to Russia.
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What help can Kim give Russia?
He said Mr Putin and Kim each had something the other wanted – but it was still unclear exactly what that was going to be.
Russia needs artillery shells, he said, and he is “betting” Kim needed money, food and cheap oil.
Asked how Kim could help Mr Putin, he said North Korea was a “highly-militarised state” and focused on producing armour.
“They probably can supply good quality ammunitions,” he said.
Growing criticism
If an arms deal was to be reached, the US warned it “won’t hesitate” to slap additional sanctions on the two countries.
South Korea, meanwhile, expressed “deep concerns” over potential military cooperation.
Unification minister Kim Young-ho, who oversees relations with the North, expressed “deep concerns”, adding Moscow and Pyongyang were apparently chasing “some kind of” a military deal.
But Russian diplomats dismissed criticism and accused the US of hypocrisy as its own policies had sent weapons to allies around the world.
“The United States has no right to lecture us on how to live,” Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, said in a statement.
Toast to victory for ‘great Russia’
Despite growing international criticism, Kim on Wednesday toasted to the victory of “great Russia” over a lunch of Russian pelmeni dumplings, white Amur fish soup and sturgeon.
North Korea was founded in September 1948 with the backing of the Soviet Union, and Moscow supported it for decades during the Cold War.
Support did drop after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, but Mr Putin visited Pyongyang in 2000 – a year after taking over from Boris Yeltsin – for a meeting with Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il.
China has been seen as the greatest influence over Kim in recent years, but North Korea often tries to balance ties between Moscow and Beijing.
World
Ukraine war: 14 killed as Russian missile and drone attacks strike Kyiv – including American citizen
Russian missile and drone attacks have killed 14 people in Kyiv overnight, according to Ukrainian officials.
A 62-year-old US citizen who suffered shrapnel wounds is among the dead.
At least 99 others were wounded in strikes that hollowed out a residential building and destroyed dozens of apartments.
Pic: AP
Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble.
Images show a firefighter was among those hurt, with injured residents evacuated from their homes.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as “one of the most terrifying attacks on Kyiv” – and said Russian forces had fired 440 drones and 32 missiles as civilians slept in their homes.
“[Putin] wants the war to go on,” he said. “It is troubling when the powerful of this world turn a blind eye to it.”
Pic: AP
Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said 27 locations across the capital have been hit – including educational institutions and critical infrastructure.
He claimed the attack, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, was one of the largest on the capital since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
Drones swarmed over the city, with an air raid alert remaining in force for seven hours.
One person was killed and 17 others injured as a result of separate Russian drone strikes in the port city of Odesa.
Pic: Reuters
It comes as the G7 summit in Canada continues, which Ukraine’s leader is expected to attend.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold talks with Donald Trump – but the president has announced he is unexpectedly returning to Washington because of tensions in the Middle East.
Ukraine’s foreign minister says Moscow’s decision to attack Kyiv during the summit is a signal of disrespect to the US.
Moscow has launched a record number of drones and missiles in recent weeks, and says the attacks are in retaliation for a Ukrainian operation that targeted warplanes in airbases deep within Russian territory.
Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko says fires broke out in two of the city’s districts as a result of debris from drones shot down by the nation’s air defences.
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US-UK trade deal is ‘done’, Donald Trump says
Pic: AP
On X, Ukraine’s foreign ministry wrote: “Russia’s campaign of terror against civilians continues. Its war against Ukraine escalates with increased brutality.
“The only way to stop Russia is tighter pressure – through sanctions, more defence support for Ukraine, and limiting Russia’s ability to keep sowing war.”
Olena Lapyshnak, who lived in one of the destroyed buildings, said: “It’s horrible, it’s scary, in one moment there is no life. I can only curse the Russians, that’s all I can say. They shouldn’t exist in this world.”
World
Israeli tank shelling kills 51 people waiting for aid in Khan Younis, Hamas-run health ministry says
Israeli tank shellfire has killed at least 51 Palestinians in Khan Younis, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.
Hundreds of others have been injured, with “dozens of critical cases” arriving at a medical complex.
It is feared that the number of fatalities will rise.
Pic: Reuters
The strikes took place as people waited for United Nations and commercial aid trucks in the southern Gaza city.
Witnesses said that Israeli forces carried out an airstrike on a nearby home before opening fire toward the crowd.
“Emergency, intensive care, and operating rooms are experiencing severe overcrowding,” a statement said.
Officials say medical staff “are operating with limited supplies of life-saving medicines” – with the ministry renewing an “urgent appeal” to increase aid.
Pic: Reuters
Hours earlier, Donald Trump had joined other G7 leaders to call for a “de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, including a ceasefire in Gaza”.
The Israeli military is yet to comment on this incident.
On Monday, Gaza’s health ministry said at least 34 people were shot dead near food distribution centres.
This was the highest reported daily total since Israel and US-backed aid centres opened last month, with thousands of Palestinians moving through Israeli military-controlled areas to reach them.
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