N. Korea's Kim urges extensive promotion of relations with Russia: KCNA

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has met with Russia's visiting natural resources minister and called for "more extensive and diversified" promotion of cooperative relations between their countries, state media reported Tuesday.

The previous day, Kim met with Russian Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology Alexander Kozlov, who led a government delegation to North Korea for the 11th meeting of the countries' intergovernmental committee for cooperation in trade, economy, science, and technology, the Korean Central News Agency reported.

During the meeting, Kim appreciated the bilateral solidarity and cooperation that have been closer and deepened in different fields since the conclusion of a new treaty between the countries, the KCNA said.

"It is necessary to mutually and powerfully propel the co-prosperity and development of the two countries by further promoting the intergovernmental trade, economic, scientific, and technological exchange and cooperation in a more extensive and diversified way," Kim said.

He noted their countries' friendly and cooperative relations have reached "a new strategic level."

Since the delegation led by Kozlov arrived in Pyongyang on Sunday, working-level discussions have been under way in areas related to the intergovernmental cooperation committee for trade, economy, science, and technology.

North Korea and Russia have been bolstering military and other cooperation since Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a new partnership treaty in June in Pyongyang that includes a mutual defense clause.

Photos released by the KCNA showed Kim receiving and later seeing off Kozlov outside the Workers' Party of Korea's Central Committee building, where the meeting took place, possibly as a gesture of cordiality.

An official at South Korea's unification ministry said the gesture appears to demonstrate Kim's "expectations for bilateral economic exchanges" and to "show off the North's closeness" with Russia.

Kim's personal welcome may also be aimed at securing sufficient rewards in economic fields for North Korea's deployment of troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine, according to a source.

Separately, the KCNA reported that a delegation from Russia's Military Academy of the Armed Forces' General Staff arrived in Pyongyang the previous day.

The visit by the delegation, led by the academy's President Vladimir Zarudnitski, suggests that North Korea-Russia exchanges are growing more frequent. (Yonhap)