North Korea-Russia ties deepen ties

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent a birthday greeting to Russian President Vladimir Putin this week and congratulated him for overcoming the challenges and threats of the United States, the latest sign of deepening ties between the two countries.

As Russia's isolation over its war in Ukraine has increased, it has seen increasing value in North Korea. Relations with Russia haven't always been as warm as they were during the heady days of the Soviet Union, but now the country is reaping clear benefits from Moscow's need for friends.

Here's how North Korea-Russia relations started, and how they are becoming closer:

The Soviet Union supported the formation of Communist North Korea in the early days of the Cold War. North Korea later battled the US and its allies to a stalemate in the Korean War between 1950 and 1953 with extensive aid from China and the Soviet Union.

For decades, North Korea relied heavily on Soviet aid, and when the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s it helped spark a deadly famine in the North.

Pyongyang's leaders use Beijing and Moscow to balance each other. Kim Jong Un initially had a relatively cold relationship with both countries, both of which joined the United States in imposing strict sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear tests.

After his country's last nuclear test in 2017 Kim took steps to repair ties.

In 2019 Kim and Putin met for the first time in the Russian city of Vladivostok.

Since then, Russia has joined China in opposing new sanctions, vetoing a US-led push in May and publicly splinting the UN Security Council UNSC for the first time since it began punishing Pyongyang in 2006.