Russia and North Korea have never been closer. The two countries grew closer over the war in Ukraine and their shared hatred of the United States. To prove their friendship, the leaders exchange gifts after gifts.
Russian President Vladimir Putin offered North Korea dozens of animals for a zoo in Pyongyang, Russia announced Wednesday, a new illustration of the rapprochement between these two countries, allied against the West and in the conflict in Ukraine.
“An African lion, two brown bears, two domestic yaks, five white cockatoos, 25 pheasants of different species and 40 mandarin ducks were transferred from the Moscow Zoo to the Pyongyang Zoo“, said the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources.
The minister, Alexander Kozlov, who visited North Korea, stressed that it was a “gift from Vladimir Putin“.
His ministry released a video showing the animals, locked in wooden crates, being unloaded from a cargo plane. It also shows the lioness in her new glass and concrete cage at the Pyongyang Zoo.
Vladimir Putin had already recently offered 24 purebred horses to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who offered dogs to the Russian president.
An express rapprochement
The two countries that view the United States as an existential threat have been moving closer together at high speed since Russia launched an attack on Ukraine in February 2022.
They signed a mutual defense pact this year and Pyongyang is accused of supplying very large quantities of ammunition, missiles, and even 50,000 soldiers to the Russian army.
Westerners also fear that in return Moscow could help North Korea accelerate its nuclear and missile program.
Putin Kim Jong Un Russia North Korea War in Ukraine
