N. Korean FM calls troop deployment to Russia 'exemplary case' of treaty with Moscow: report

▲ This Oct. 20, 2023, file image of North Korea's Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui is captured from the Korean Central Television. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

N Korean FM-Russia

N. Korean FM calls troop deployment to Russia 'exemplary case' of treaty with Moscow: report

SEOUL, March 31 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui has met with the head of Russia's Tass news agency and called her country's troop deployment to Russia an "exemplary case" of implementing a treaty with Moscow, a Russian news report showed Tuesday.

Choe met with Tass Director General Andrey Kondrashov on Monday as a delegation from the Russian news agency has been visiting Pyongyang since Saturday, which included the signing of a media cooperation agreement with the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"Chairman Kim Jong-un, mobilizing a specific article of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement (with Russia), decided to send our units to the Kursk region, and this is an exemplary case of the implementation of this agreement," Tass quoted Choe as saying.

The foreign minister also expressed confidence Tass' "information activities would make the most significant contribution to the development of friendly relations" between the two countries.

The North deployed around 15,000 combat troops to support Russia in its war against Ukraine since Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the strategic partnership treaty in June 2024.

The KCNA separately reported Tuesday that the Tass delegation also met Monday with Jo Yong-won, the new chairman of the standing committee of North Korea's parliament, the Supreme People's Assembly.

During the meeting, Jo pledged to remain faithful to the spirit and obligations of the North Korea-Russia treaty, Tass also said.

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