[PHOTOS] Putin gives North Korea a lioness, cockatoos and bears

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 its two allied countries 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,” the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources said.

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.

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 10,000 soldiers to the Russian army.

Westerners also fear that in return Moscow could help North Korea accelerate its nuclear and missile program.