A delegation from Russia's Main Directorate for Political-Military Affairs visited North Korea. It is seen as aimed at strengthening the two countries' military cooperation.
Korean Central News Agency reported on the 6th that a delegation led by Viktor Goremykin, Russia's Ministry of National Defense Vice Minister and Director General of the Main Directorate for Political-Military Affairs of the Armed Forces, arrived in Pyongyang the previous day. This is the first time a Russian official with the title of director of the Main Directorate for Political-Military Affairs has visited North Korea.
The delegation's specific purpose for the visit to North Korea was not disclosed. On this, a Unification Ministry official said, "We see it as exchanges between North Korea and Russia across various fields."
Pak Yong-il, a North Korean army deputy director of the General Political Bureau, who greeted the delegation at the airport, led a military delegation and visited Russia in Apr. to attend the 3rd International Anti-Fascist Congress. The Russian delegation's visit to North Korea appears to be a return visit.
Given that Russia's Main Directorate for Political-Military Affairs and North Korea's General Political Bureau are departments that handle party control over the military, namely ideology, North Korea and Russia may also have met this time to craft a narrative of the Battle of Kursk, into which North Korean troops deployed to Russia were sent.
The two countries have continued exchanges in the military institutional sector since the signing of a "comprehensive strategic partnership" treaty in Jun. last year and the dispatch of North Korean troops to Russia in Oct. of the same year.