This photo, carried by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on Aug. 16, 2024, shows the North’s leader Kim Jong-un visiting the Liberation Tower in Pyongyang to pay tribute to fallen soldiers of the former Soviet Union the previous day to mark the 79th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has exchanged a message with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the occasion of the 79th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule and vowed to bolster ties with Moscow, state media reported Friday.
Putin extended a message to Kim earlier this week to offer congratulations on the Aug. 15 anniversary, and Kim sent a reply Thursday, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
In the message, Putin expressed his belief that thoroughly implementing the agreements reached during his summit with Kim in June in Pyongyang would continue to promote the expansion of reciprocal bilateral cooperation.
In response, Kim stressed that friendly feelings between the peoples of the two nations have been “forged and deepened” in a bloody struggle against the common enemy.
He said the bonds serve as a strong driving force for developing their ties into “invincible comradeship and for promoting the building of powerful states in the two countries and the building of a multi-polarized new world,” according to the KCNA.
North Korea and Russia have been bolstering military and other cooperation on the occasion of Moscow’s war in Ukraine. After summit talks in Pyongyang, Kim and Putin signed a new partnership treaty that includes a mutual defense clause.
Meanwhile, the North’s leader visited the Liberation Tower on Thursday to pay tribute to Soviet Union soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War.
The Liberation Tower is a monument built in Pyongyang in 1947 to honor the Red Army from the former Soviet Union that the North claimed helped liberate Korea from Japan’s colonial rule.
On the same day, Kim also visited the Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery on Mount Taesong, where the bodies of anti-Japanese fighters were buried.
It marked his first known visit to the cemetery on the day of liberation.
(Yonhap)
