By Will Ripley, Lex Harvey, Chris Lau, Lucas Lilieholm and Laura Sharman

(CNN) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un restated he “unconditionally” supports all Russian actions during its war in Ukraine, as he welcomed Moscow’s top diplomat to a newly built beach resort on his country’s east coast.

Kim met Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the North Korean city of Wonsan, at a time when Pyongyang is being pulled deeper into the three-year conflict.

During the meeting, Kim reaffirmed his government’s commitment to “unconditionally support and encourage all measures” that Russia takes in Ukraine, the Associated Press reported, citing the official Korean Central News Agency.

Photos released by Russia’s Foreign Ministry showed the two men smiling and shaking hands, and sitting across from each other at a small circular table in the cabin of a yacht.

Lavrov’s trip comes at a crucial time for Russian-North Korean relations, with Pyongyang set to deploy an additional 25,000 to 30,000 soldiers to assist Moscow’s scaled-up assault on Ukraine, according to Ukrainian intelligence – adding to the estimated 11,000 soldiers Pyongyang sent last year.

It also comes as the United States has grown increasingly frustrated with Russia. US President Donald Trump has accused his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of throwing “bullsh*t” at peace talks, and pledged more support for Kyiv.

The trip could further strengthen an alliance that has the potential to reshape not only the war but the security dynamic in Asia.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry posted on X that Putin sent “his warm greetings” to Kim, “and reaffirms commitment to all the previous agreements.”

Lavrov, who arrived in North Korea Friday for a three-day visit, also met with his North Korean counterpart Choe Son Hui in Wonsan Saturday, Russia’s foreign ministry said on Telegram.

“We exchanged views on the situation surrounding the Ukrainian crisis,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by Russian state media agency TASS at a press conference following that meeting. “Our Korean friends confirmed their firm support for all the objectives of the special military operation, as well as for the actions of the Russian leadership and armed forces.”

As to what Pyongyang gets in return for such support, Robert Kelly, professor of political science at Pusan National University in South Korea, said “the real concern… is what are the North Koreans getting on the weapons of mass destruction program?”

Despite years of diplomacy and sanctions intended to stop its nuclear program, the Kim regime is thought to possess multiple nuclear weapons, as well as missiles that can potentially reach the United States.

“Are the Russians giving the North Koreans guidance technology, are they giving it warhead reentry technology, perhaps they are giving it drone technology,” Kelly told CNN’s Brian Abel.

Moscow is also likely paying the impoverished nation “at minimum a per head, a per capita, price for each North Korean soldier that’s been deployed,” Kelly said.

Sending soldiers “about whom the North Korean regime doesn’t care at all,” in exchange for extremely “valuable technological stuff from the Russians,” is a “really, really good boost for the North Koreans because they’re getting something that they can’t make locally,” he said.

At the start of his meeting with Choe, Lavrov said he hoped Russian tourists would soon be able to visit the Wonsan resort, opened last month and hailed by state media as a “national treasure-level tourism city.”

“I am sure that Russian tourists will be increasingly eager to come here. We will do everything we can to facilitate this, creating conditions for this, including air travel,” Lavrov said, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

According to KCNA, Kim personally cut the ribbon on the sprawling Kalma beachside resort with waterparks, high-rise hotels, and accommodation for nearly 20,000 guests – a sweeping display of extravagance in one of the world’s most reclusive nations.

The Kalma beach resort is next to an international airport, another indication the project is aimed at attracting foreign currency.

Last year, small groups of Russian tourists visited North Korea for three-day ski holidays at Maskiryong resort, which has been a long-standing tourist attraction since its opening in December 2013.

Lavrov departed North Korea Sunday and arrived in China, where he will take part in a meeting of foreign ministers from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation member states, Russia’s foreign ministry said.

Integrated into Russia’s war

Despite sustaining heavy battlefield losses, North Korea has become increasingly integrated into Russia’s war. An estimated 4,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed or wounded in Russia, according to Western officials.

On the ground in the Russian border region of Kursk, where North Korean soldiers helped repel Ukraine’s incursion last year, the reclusive state’s soldiers are reportedly living in dugouts, fighting – and dying – alongside Russian troops.

Satellite images obtained by CNN showed cargo planes and troop transport ships moving between North Korea and Russia, hinting at major military logistics underway.

Facing shortages on the front line, even as its own factories work round-the-clock, Russia has become reliant on North Korea for additional weaponry.

Training manuals for North Korean artillery have been translated into Russian, in a sign of both the ubiquity of the weapons and the increasing interoperability between Moscow’s and Pyongyang’s armed forces. A report from 11 UN member states last month said that Pyongyang sent at least 100 ballistic missiles and 9 million artillery shells to Russia in 2024.

Russia has intensified its aerial assaults on Ukraine in recent weeks, launching more than 3,000 drones and missiles over the past seven days alone. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that Ukraine’s air defenses were “performing well.”

He said Ukraine’s Interceptor drones were performing particularly well, with hundreds of Russian-Iranian Shahed drones shot down over the past week.

Nine people in total have been killed in Ukraine over the past 24 hours, with a further 23 injured, according to Ukrainian authorities.

The-CNN-Wire
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