N. Korean leader's close aide visits Russia amid deepening bilateral ties

A North Korean official considered to be one of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's closest aides has arrived in Russia, the North's state media said Sunday, amid deepening relations between the two countries following North Korea's deployment of troops to support Russia's war against Ukraine. Jo Yong-won, secretary of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party, arrived in Moscow by private plane on Saturday, leading a party and government delegation, the Korean Central News Agency said. The visit comes at "a time when the militant friendship, friendship and relations of alliance between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation with independence and justice as their common ideal are being further cemented with each passing day," it said in an English dispatch. The delegation was invited by Dmitry Medvedev, chairman of Russia's ruling United Russia party. They were greeted at the airport by Andrei Klimov, a member of the party's Supreme Council and first vice chairman of the International Affairs Committee of the State Duma, the lower house of Russia's p