North Korean leader Kim Jong Un invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit his country during their recent interactions.
Putin, who hosted Kim at a Russian spaceport on Wednesday, indicated that Russia would help Pyongyang solve the problems that led to the failure of two attempts to put a spy satellite into orbit while all eyes are on whether Pyongyang will provide military aid to Moscow for their war in Ukraine.
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"While interacting one-on-one, Kim Jong Un invited Putin to visit North Korea. Putin accepted the invitation with gratitude," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday. "Everything will be further coordinated via diplomatic channels."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will also travel to Pyongyang in the coming weeks; Peskov predicted his trip would take place "at some point in October."
Kim traveled to Russia by armored train on his first visit outside the country since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. He last visited Russia, where he also met with Putin, in 2019.
United States officials warned in recent weeks that Moscow is seeking to procure military support from North Korea for its war in Ukraine, which comes after the Biden administration accused Pyongyang of providing the Russian paramilitary organization known as the Wagner Group with weapons in late 2022. Throughout Russia's war, the U.S. has adamantly warned Russia's allies that they would face consequences from the U.S. should they assist Moscow in the war.
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"No nation on the planet, nobody, should be helping Mr. Putin kill innocent Ukrainians," National Security Council coordinator John Kirby told reporters on Wednesday. "And if they decide to move forward with some sort of arms deal, we’ll obviously — we’ll take — we’ll take the measure of that, and we’ll — and we’ll — and we’ll deal with it appropriately. As Jake Sullivan said last week, there will certainly be repercussions for North Korea, both from the United States and from the international community."
Russia, which expected to capture the entire country within days or weeks of invading, has sought to get military assistance from Iran, North Korea, and China. U.S. agencies have provided evidence to support their conclusion that Russia is using Iranian drones, while the U.S. preemptively warned China against doing so earlier in the war.