Daily SumUp

Top Russian security official Sergei Shoigu arrived in Pyongyang on Friday for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to Russian and DPRK state media, as the allies continue their military cooperation over the war in Ukraine.

Shoigu, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council and former defense chief, arrived in the morning and met Kim later in the day, delivering a personal message from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Russian leader “pays the closest attention to the implementation of the agreements” reached with the DPRK leader, Shoigu told Kim, according to Interfax, referring to the comprehensive strategic partnership agreement the two leaders signed last year.

Shoigu briefly spoke to Russian reporters in Pyongyang after the talks with Kim, which he said “lasted over two hours,” a video published by Vesti shows.

The two discussed the results of the two reciprocal state visits of Putin and Kim in 2023 and 2024, he said, as well as the recently initiated Russia-U.S. dialogue, “everything that’s happening in Ukraine” and other security issues like the situation on the Korean Peninsula.