Belarusian President Lukashenko arrives in North Korea for talks with Kim Jong Un

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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko arrived in North Korea’s capital on Wednesday for an official visit during which he is to hold talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Lukashenko was greeted at Pyongyang’s airport by North Korean vice premier Kim Tok Hun and later in the day by Kim Jong Un himself during a pomp-filled ceremony at the Kim Il Sung Square, named after his state-founding grandfather, according to the Belarusian president’s press service.

North Korean state media said Kim and Lukashenko laid flowers at a memorial honoring Soviet soldiers who died during the 1950–53 Korean War. The conflict mainly pitted North Korean and Chinese forces against South Korea and U.S.-led United Nations troops, though Moscow also provided ammunition, warplanes and pilots to support the North.

Lukashenko also visited a mausoleum displaying the embalmed bodies of Kim’s grandfather and father, the country’s first two leaders, according to North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency.

Lukashenko, the autocratic ruler of Belarus for over three decades, is a close Kremlin ally and allowed Russia to use Belarusian territory as a staging ground for Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and later authorized the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Kim has also prioritized Russia in recent years, sending thousands of troops and large quantities of weapons to support Russian President Vladimir Putin ’s war in Ukraine, while pursuing a more assertive foreign policy aimed at expanding ties with countries that oppose Washington.

During a speech at North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament on Monday, Kim accused the United States of global “state terrorism and aggression,” in an apparent reference to the war in the Middle East and called for Pyongyang to play a stronger role in a united front against Washington amid rising anti-American sentiment.

According to Belarus' state news agency Belta, bilateral ties between North Korea and Belarus are on the agenda of the two leaders' talks. Lukashenko last met Kim in September 2025 in Beijing and was invited to visit North Korea, the agency reported. In 2024, Belarusian Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov visited North Korea.

Ryzhenkov said the countries will sign a friendship and cooperation treaty during Lukashenko's visit.

___ AP writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed from Seoul, South Korea.