Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is set to visit North Korea this weekend, marking the latest in a string of high-level trips by senior Moscow officials as the two nations strengthen their military cooperation.
Pyongyang has emerged as one of the Kremlin's main allies during its Ukraine invasion, sending thousands of troops to Russia's Kursk region to oust Kyiv's forces and providing the Russian army with artillery shells and missiles.
Lavrov "will visit the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on July 11-13" for the "second round of strategic dialogue at the level of foreign ministers", Russian ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters in Moscow on Wednesday.
North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency reported earlier that Lavrov would visit "at the invitation of the DPRK Foreign Ministry."
Ahead of the visit, Russia announced that it would begin twice-a-week flights between Moscow and Pyongyang.
