Donetsk self-proclaimed leader pledges ‘bilateral cooperation’ with North Korea

North Korea and the Russian-occupied Donetsk region of Ukraine will develop “equally beneficial bilateral cooperation”, its self-appointed leader has said in a letter to Kim Jong-un, according to state media.

Denis Pushilin made the pledge in a message congratulating Kim on the 15 August Korean liberation day, North Korean state news agency KCNA reported, two days after reporting a similar message from Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to Kim.

“The people of the Donbas region, too, are fighting to regain their freedom and justice of history today just as the Korean people did 77 years ago,” the report cited Pushilin’s letter as saying.

“The message expressed the conviction that an equally beneficial bilateral cooperation agreeing with the interests of the peoples of the two countries will be achieved between the People’s Republic of Donetsk and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” KCNA added, using the official name of North Korea.

Pushilin has previously said he hoped for “fruitful cooperation” and increased trade with North Korea.

Last month, Russia’s ambassador in Pyongyang, Alexander Matsegora, said North Korean labour could be sent to help rebuild the war-shattered infrastructure in the self-proclaimed people’s republics in Donetsk and Luhansk.

Matsegora said there were potentially “a lot of opportunities” for economic cooperation between the North and the self-proclaimed republics in Ukraine’s Donbas region, despite UN sanctions.

He told the Russian newspaper Izvestia in an interview, according to Seoul-based website NK News, that “highly qualified and hard-working Korean builders, who are capable of working in the most difficult conditions, could help us restore our social, infrastructure and industrial facilities”.

North Korea has traditionally earned much-needed foreign currency by sending its citizens to work overseas. Under UN-sanctions they were supposed to have been repatriated by the end of 2019, but significant numbers of North Korean labourers have reportedly continued to work in Russia and China, as well as in Laos and Vietnam, after the deadline.

Earlier this week, Putin told the North Korean ruler that Russia and North Korea would “expand the comprehensive and constructive bilateral relations with common efforts”, according to a letter cited by KCNA on Monday.

The letter claimed closer ties would be in both countries’ interests, and would help strengthen the security and stability of the Korean peninsula and the north-eastern Asian region.

During a speech at the Moscow international security conference on Tuesday, Putin said Russia would provide its allies and partners with “advanced weapons and military equipment” as well as working to create new “mechanisms of international security”.

Kim reportedly sent a letter of reply to Putin saying Russian-North Korean friendship had been forged in the second world war with victory over Japan. Their “strategic and tactical cooperation, support and solidarity” had since reached a new level in their common efforts to frustrate threats and provocations from hostile military forces, Kim said in the letter. KCNA did not identify the…