Seoul, South Korea — Relations between Russia and North Korea have reached a “qualitatively new, strategic” level, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday in Pyongyang, according to Moscow state media. “After the landmark summit … we can say confidently that (Russia-North Korea) relations have reached a qualitatively new, strategic level,” Lavrov reportedly told North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui at a Thursday meeting. September’s Kim-Putin summit fanned Western fears Pyongyang might provide Moscow with weapons for its drawn-out war in Ukraine. According to a graphic provided by the White House, a load of containers was shipped by sea from North Korea to Russia between September 1 and October 1. The tightening of the alliance between Moscow and Pyongyang comes with relations between the two Koreas at a historic low and diplomacy stalled.
