North Korean Foreign Minster Meets With Russian President In Sudden Diplomatic Talks
An unexpected meeting has sparked much discussion about the meaning of it all.
A meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui took place in Moscow on Sunday, July 19, 2026. The Russian President thanked Pyongyang for their support in his war against Ukraine in the latest push for diplomacy between the two nations, Russian state media reported.
The meeting appears to have been held despite no specific occasion and has raised speculation that Choe may be coordinating a possible visit to Russia by North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un. North Korean state media reported that she left for Russia on Saturday at the behest of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, but has not yet commented on the purpose of her visit.
In 2024, under a mutual defense pact, North Korean soldiers helped Russian forces repel a Ukrainian invasion into its western Kursk region, significantly bolstering relations between the two. Kim Jong Un, in recent years, has chosen to make Russia a high priority of North Korean foreign policy, sending thousands of soldiers and a hefty supply of weaponry to support Putin’s war in Ukraine (possibly in exchange for economic or technological aid).
Since the collapse of nuclear diplomacy between Kim and the U.S (during the first Trump administration in 2019), he has used Russia’s war on Ukraine as a diversion to accelerate the advancement of the North Korean nuclear weapons program, furthering their increasingly aggressive posturing toward the Western-aligned South Korea.
It should be noted that the Russian Foreign Minister invited his North Korean counterpart as Ukrainian strikes are crippling Russia’s oil refineries and the long-stagnant war appears to tip further in the latter’s favor, though it is unclear whether this meeting occurred because of recent losses or in the interest of long-term relations.