Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov arrived on Friday on an official visit to North Korea, news agencies reported, citing the defence ministry. Belousov will hold bilateral meetings with North Korea's military and military-political leadership,

The visit came days after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol met with a Ukrainian delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and called for the two countries to formulate unspecified countermeasures in response to North Korea’s dispatch of thousands of troops to Russia in support of its war fighting against Ukraine.

North Korea is expanding a weapons plant that manufactures missiles used by Russia against Ukraine, according to new research from a US-based think tank.