North Korea, China and Russia's ‘blood-forged' ties: real or rhetoric?
This week, North Korea's state media showed its leader
Kim Jong-un draping coffins with the national flag in what appeared to be the repatriation of soldiers killed fighting in Russia's
war against Ukraine
In a series of photographs, Kim, who appeared to be overcome with emotion, was seen by rows of half a dozen coffins in Pyongyang, covering them with flags.
The scene took place on Sunday amid the visit by a delegation led by Russia's Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova to mark the first anniversary of the strategic partnership between Pyongyang and Moscow.
Russian Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova (left) shakes hands with Kim during their meeting at the headquarters of the Party Central Committee in Pyongyang on Sunday. Photo: KCNA/EPA-EFE
Soldiers from the two countries were seen waving their national flags, a gesture described by the Korean Central News Agency as affirming the 'ties of friendship and the genuine internationalist obligation between the peoples and armies of the two countries that were forged at the cost of blood'.
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