Russia's spy chief visited North Korea for security talks: KCNA

Russia’s spy chief visited Pyongyang earlier this week to discuss security cooperation, North Korea’s state news agency reported Thursday, as the historical allies deepen ties amid Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service, met with North Korea’s State Security Minister Ri Chang-dae during his visit on March 25-27.

The officials discussed boosting cooperation “to cope with the ever-growing spying and plotting moves by the hostile forces,” KCNA reported.

Russia and North Korea are both under a raft of global sanctions — Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, and Pyongyang for its testing of nuclear weapons.

In September last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held a summit in Russia’s far east, during which Kim declared that ties with Moscow were his country’s “number one priority”.

The United States subsequently claimed Pyongyang had begun providing Moscow with weapons.

And South Korea asserted earlier this month that North Korea had shipped around 7,000 containers of arms to Russia for its war with Ukraine since the transfers began around last July.

Washington and experts have said Pyongyang was seeking a range of military assistance in return, such as satellite technology and upgrading its Soviet-era military equipment.

“The two sides reached a complete consensus of views on the issues on the table at the two talks that proceeded in a comradely and amicable atmosphere,” the KCNA report said.