Putin consults Kim Jong Un ahead of Alaska summit with Trump
Russian president Vladimir Putin is preparing to fly to Alaska for a meeting with Donald Trump and is calling allies ahead of the Aug. 15 summit. The Kremlin reported he spoke with Kim Jong Un.
According to the Kremlin, Putin thanked his counterpart for “support during the liberation of the territory of the Kursk region,” praised “the courage and heroism of DPRK fighters,” and shared with Kim “information in the context of the upcoming talks with Trump.”
The Kremlin press service noted that since June 2024, Moscow and Pyongyang have had a treaty on a “comprehensive strategic partnership.”
North Korea’s state media also reported on Putin’s call with Kim, saying it took place in a “warm, comradely atmosphere.”
However, they did not separately state that the two discussed the Alaska summit with US President Donald Trump, noting only that Putin and Kim “exchanged views on issues of mutual interest.”
Kim then firmly assured that the DPRK “will always remain faithful to the spirit of the treaty between the DPRK and Russia and will continue to fully support all measures of the Russian leadership.”
Kim Jong Un met Donald Trump in the DMZ in 2019, their third meeting. The first-ever US–North Korea summit took place in 2018 in Singapore, where Trump and Kim signed a joint statement in which Pyongyang pledged to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula in exchange for US security guarantees. North Korea ultimately did not give up its nuclear weapons.
Earlier, Putin called the leaders of China, India, South Africa and Brazil. He also held phone talks with the presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.