North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said in a congratulatory message to Vladimir Putin on Monday that Russian voters had shown “unshakeable support” for their re-elected president, state media reported.
“Your re-election to the heavy responsibility of the head of state is the Russian people’s valuable estimate of the outstanding leadership and tenacious executive ability you displayed in state activities with a high prestige as the leader of the nation,” Kim said, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
He added that Putin’s victory was an expression of Russian voters’ “unshakeable support and trust in” the Russian leader.
Russia and North Korea, historical allies, are both under a raft of global sanctions — Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine and Pyongyang for its testing of nuclear weapons.
In September, Putin and Kim held a summit in Russia’s far east, with the United States subsequently claiming Pyongyang had begun providing Moscow with weapons.
Kim declared during the visit that ties with Moscow were his country’s “number one priority”, with Pyongyang becoming an ardent supporter of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
North Korea has shipped around 7,000 containers of arms to Russia for its war with Ukraine since the transfers began around last July, South Korea’s defence minister asserted Monday.
“I am firmly convinced that, under your energetic and correct guidance, the Russian people will surely win victory in the cause of reliably defending the sovereignty and security of the country,” Kim said in his message, according to KCNA.
Putin won over 87 percent of the vote in a three-day ballot blasted as illegitimate by Western powers.