Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un pet dogs during a walk in the garden of the Kumsusan Guesthouse in Pyongyang, North Korea in this image released by the Korean Central News Agency on June 20, 2024.
| Photo Credit: KCNA via Reuters

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a pair of Pungsan dogs, a local breed, state media KCNA reported on June 20.

Mr. Kim and Mr. Putin were seen looking at the dogs, who were tied to a rose-covered fence, during a segment aired on the state-controlled Korean Central Television on Thursday.

Also Read | The quick transformation of Russia-North Korea ties 

The two bonded over animals as Mr. Kim fed carrots to a horse while Mr. Putin patted it on its head.

Mr. Kim, a horseman, was famously pictured riding a white stallion in Mount Paektu during snowfall in photos released by state media in 2019, flooding the internet with memes.

He was seen riding a white horse again in a propaganda video in 2022.

The horses Mr. Kim rode are symbolic for North Korea, which named its economic effort to recover from the 1950-53 Korean War after the mythical winged horse Chollima. The country’s latest rocket booster is also named Chollima-1.

Mr. Putin, who prizes his sporty image, has also been pictured shirtless several times in photos released by Russian state media, including one set in which he rode a brown horse while wearing wrap-around sunglasses, a gold chain and army trousers.

Pungsans are a breed of hunting dogs native to a region in northern North Korea.

Also Read | A timeline of the complicated relations between Russia and North Korea

Former South Korean president Moon Jae-in also received a pair of white Pungsans — named “Gomi” and “Songgang” — from Mr. Kim in 2018 during a breakthrough in inter-Korean relations.

In 2022, a freight train carrying 30 grey thoroughbred horses heading to North Korea departed Russia’s far east through the Khasan-Tumangan crossing, according to Russia’s veterinary service, in what appeared to be the first reported train shipment between the two countries post-pandemic.

Putin gifts second Russian luxury limousine to Kim

Earlier on June 19, Vladimir Putin gifted a second Aurus luxury limousine to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, as the two countries announced a breakthrough in their strategic partnership during the Russian President’s rare visit to the reclusive state.

Mr. Putin, 71, gave Mr. Kim an Aurus luxury car when the two leaders exchanged gifts, according to Russian state media – the second time Mr. Putin has given his counterpart this car model. According to Mr. Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov, the Russian leader also presented Kim with a tea set. Mr. Ushakov did not specify what Mr. Putin received, but said they were “also good gifts.” “They have already exchanged gifts,” he said. “We gave an Aurus,” Mr. Ushakov told Tass news agency without specifying the model. “Yes, this is the second one, not the third [we have given to Kim], the second, for sure,” he added.

Later, Mr. Putin took Mr. Kim, 40, for a spin in the Russian-made Aurus car to cap their day of talks.

Photos released by Russian media showed Mr. Putin and Mr. Kim taking turns to take the wheel in the new Aurus around the guest house following the summit talks.

Mr. Putin showed a model of an Aurus Motors executive car to the North Korean leader last September during Mr. Kim’s visit to the Vostochny Cosmodrome space launch site in the Amur Region in Russia’s Far East.

In February this year, Mr. Putin gifted an Aurus to Mr. Kim. He became the first leader to receive it as a gift, Tass reported without revealing the model.

“When the leader of the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] was at the Vostochny Cosmodrome spaceport, he saw this car; Mr. Putin personally showed it to him. Like many [auto enthusiasts], he liked the car, and so the decision was made (to present it to him as a gift),” Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in February.

In May, Mr. Putin presented King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa with a long version of the Aurus car, Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov said.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that giving a vehicle as a gift to Mr. Kim constitutes a violation of UN Security Council sanctions banning the supply, sale and transfer of luxury items to North Korea, under Resolution 2397 adopted in December 2017.

The resolution was adopted unanimously on December 22, 2017, in response to North Korea’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile on November 28 of that year.

Aurus is the first Russian luxury car brand, which started to be built in 2013 under a contract with the Industry and Trade Ministry. The project calls for the development of vehicles both to replace current cars used by senior government officials and for sale to the general public.

Kim Jong Un used a Russian luxury limousine gifted by Vladimir Putin recently, Kim’s sister said on March 16, 2024, praising the car’s “special function” and the two countries’ deepening bilateral ties. File
| Photo Credit: AP

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un used a Russian luxury limousine gifted by President Vladimir Putin recently, Mr. Kim’s sister said on March 16, praising the car’s “special function” and the two countries’ deepening bilateral ties.

In February, Mr. Putin sent Mr. Kim a high-end Aurus Senat limousine, which he had shown to the North Korean leader when they met for a summit in Russia in September.

Also Read | A timeline of the complicated relations between Russia and North Korea

Observers said the shipment violated a United Nations resolution aimed at pressuring the North to give up its nuclear weapons program by banning the supply of luxury items to North Korea.

In a statement carried on Saturday by state media, Mr. Kim’s sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, said that her brother used that limousine for the first time during an open event the previous day.

“The special function of the private car is perfect and can be thoroughly trusted,” Kim Yo Jong said. “Kim Jong Un’s using of the private car sent by the president of the Russian Federation as a gift is a clear proof of (North Korea)-Russia friendship, which is developing in a comprehensive way on a new high stage.”

According to Russian state media, Aurus was the first Russian luxury car brand, and it’s been used in motorcades of top officials since Mr. Putin first used an Aurus limousine during his inauguration ceremony in 2018.

Mr. Kim, 40, possesses a collection of foreign-made luxury cars believed to have been smuggled into his country. During his Russia visit, he travelled between meeting sites in a Maybach limousine that was brought with him on one of his special train carriages. Other limousines he’s reportedly used include a Mercedes-Maybach S600 Pullman Guard and a Maybach S62.

Over the past year, North Korea and Russia have sharply boosted their military and other cooperation as they face separate confrontations with the West — North Korea for its advancing nuclear programme and Russia for its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Drawing the biggest outside concerns was North Korea’s purported shipments of conventional weapons to support Russia’s war with Ukraine to receive high-tech Russian weapons technologies and other support.

Russia, together with China, have repeatedly blocked the U.S. and its partners’ attempts to impose fresh U.N. sanctions on North Korea over its barrage of banned ballistic missile tests.

Moscow:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un received five explosive drones, a reconnaissance drone and a bulletproof vest as gifts from a regional governor on his visit to Russia, official TASS news agency said Sunday. Kim’s first official visit abroad since the coronavirus pandemic has fanned Western fears that Moscow and Pyongyang will defy sanctions and strike an arms deal. 

On Saturday he met the Russian defence minister in Vladivostok, where he inspected state-of-the-art weapons including a hypersonic missile system.

TASS said the “leader of the DPRK received five kamikaze drones and a ‘Geran-25’ reconnaissance drone with vertical takeoff”, using the official name of North Korea.

TASS said the governor of the Primorye region, which borders China and North Korea, also “offered Kim Jong Un a set of bulletproof protection” and “special clothing not detectable by thermal cameras”.

Kim’s extended tour of Russia’s far eastern region, which began on Tuesday, has focused extensively on military matters, as evidenced by his own officer-dominated entourage, a symbolic exchange of rifles with President Vladimir Putin and a tour of a fighter jet factory in Komsomolsk-on-Amur.

Moscow is believed to be interested in buying North Korean ammunition to continue fighting in Ukraine, while Pyongyang wants Russia’s help to develop its internationally condemned missile programme. 

The Kremlin has said no agreement has or will be signed.

Kim also met with North Korean students studying in Vladivostok on Sunday.

North Korean news agency KCNA has described the atmosphere during Kim’s visit as “fervent and warm” and said a “new era of friendship, solidarity and cooperation” was opening between North Korea and Russia.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Moscow, Russia:

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday on the 75 anniversary of the country’s founding and called for stronger ties “on all fronts”.

“I am convinced that thanks to our joint efforts we will continue to strengthen… bilateral ties on all fronts”, Putin said in a message to Kim as quoted by the Kremlin.

“This fully corresponds to the interests of our people” and helps to ensure “the security and stability on the Korean peninsula and northeast Asia,” he said.

Putin noted that the Soviet Union was the first country to recognise the North Korean regime and said that “since then relations between our two countries have always been based on the principles of friendship, good neighbourliness and mutual respect”.

“I sincerely wish you good health and success and I wish all North Korean citizens peace and prosperity,” Putin added.

The statement comes amid rumours of a possible summit between the two leaders in Russia later this month, according to US media reports.

American officials told the New York Times that Kim would likely travel by armoured train to Vladivostok, on Russia’s Pacific coast not far from North Korea, to meet with Putin.

Vladivostok will be hosting the Eastern Economic Forum on September 10 to 13, which last year saw 68 countries attend.

The Kremlin however refused for the second time on Saturday to confirm any meeting.

“No, I don’t know,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when asked if he had information about a meeting between Putin and Kim on the sidelines of the summit.

 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)