Jo Yong-won, right, chairman of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly, and Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament, pose for a photo marking their talks at the Kumsusan State Guest House in Pyongyang, Saturday, in this photo provided by the North's official Korean Central News Agency the following day. Yonhap
A Russian delegation led by the country's Duma speaker arrived in Pyongyang to attend a ceremony marking the opening of a memorial museum honoring soldiers killed while fighting for Russia in its war with Ukraine, North Korea's state media reported Sunday.
The delegation led by Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament, arrived in Pyongyang on Saturday and was greeted by Jo Yong-won, chairman of the North's Supreme People's Assembly, the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
North Korea is set to open the Memorial Museum of Combat Feats at the Overseas Military Operations in Pyongyang, honoring North Korean troops killed while fighting for Russia in the war against Ukraine.
The North deployed around 15,000 combat troops to support Russia in the war after leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a strategic partnership treaty in June 2024.
On April 26 last year, Russia declared it had recaptured the Kursk region from Ukrainian forces, with North Korean troops reportedly playing a role in the operation.
Jo and Volodin held talks at the Kumsusan State Guest House, during which they exchanged opinions on ways to expand parliamentary exchange and cooperation between their two nations and reaffirmed their will to implement agreements made between their leaders in summit talks held in Pyongyang, the KCNA said.
Jo was quoted as saying the deployment of a high-level delegation to the opening ceremony displays the Russian people's support, to which Volodin expressed gratitude to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for supporting operations at Kursk and vowed to eternally remember North Korean soldiers.
Meanwhile, in another sign of the deepening alignment between Pyongyang and Moscow, the KCNA said the leader of Russia's Communist Party has sent a congratulatory message to Kim to mark the seventh anniversary of Kim's first visit to Russia and the first anniversary of the Kursk recapture.
In the letter, Gennady Andreyevich Zyuganov said ties between the two countries have reached an "unprecedentedly high level and entered a new era" with the signing of a pact formalizing their comprehensive strategic partnership, according to the KCNA.
Source: Korea Times News
