Russia's Lavrov says N Korea fully behind aims of Ukraine invasion

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov praised the military alliance with North Korea on Saturday, during a visit to the secretive dictatorship.

"Our Korean friends have reaffirmed their unequivocal support for all the objectives of the special military operation and the actions of the Russian leadership and the Russian army," Lavrov said, using the Kremlin's term for the invasion of Ukraine over three years ago.

North Korea has supported the Russian war against Ukraine by supplying weapons and soldiers to Moscow.

Lavrov's talks with his North Korean counterpart, Choe Son Hui, in the port city of Wonsan took place against the backdrop of media reports about a possible new deployment of North Korean soldiers to Russia.

North Korean soldiers were dispatched to the western Russian region of Kursk, in order to recapture parts of the region taken by Ukrainian troops.

According to estimates by the Ukrainian intelligence service, a total of around 14,000 soldiers from North Korea fought on this section of the front.

Although it took a long time for the deployment of North Korean soldiers to be publically recognized, at the end of June, North Korea's state television channel KCTV showed footage of ruler Kim Jong Un laying the North Korean flag over a coffin - presumably mourning soldiers who died fighting in the Ukraine war.

In the North Korean capital Pyongyang, Lavrov thanked North Korea for its help and declared that a memorial would be erected in Kursk for the fallen North Korean soldiers.