SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed willingness to visit the North at an unspecified “early date” as the countries face their separate, intensifying confrontations with the North United States continues to ally.

The North Korean Foreign Ministry emphasized Putin’s intention to visit following North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui’s meetings with Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow last week. The ministry said in a statement carried by state media that the two countries had agreed to further strategic and tactical cooperation with Russia to create a “new multipolarized international order,” a reference to their efforts to build a united front against Washington.

Putin had already confirmed his willingness to visit the capital Pyongyang at an appropriate time during his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the Russian Far East in September. As one of the few world leaders to openly support Putin’s war against Ukraine, Kim has actively increased the visibility of his ties with Russia to break out of diplomatic isolation and strengthen his position while managing a worsening nuclear standoff with Washington and Seoul and Tokyo.

In a separate statement on Sunday, the North’s foreign ministry condemned the UN Security Council for convening an emergency meeting over the country’s latest ballistics test, which state media described as a new medium-range solid-fuel missile with a hypersonic warhead. The ministry said the test firing on January 14 was part of the country’s regular activities to improve its defense capabilities and did not pose a threat to its neighbors.

South Korea on Thursday called on the Security Council to “break the silence” over North Korea’s escalating missile tests and threats. Russia and China, both permanent members of the council, have blocked U.S.-led efforts to tighten sanctions on North Korea over its recent weapons tests, underscoring a deepening divide over Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The rapprochement between Pyongyang and Moscow has raised international concerns about an alleged arms cooperation in which the North is supplying Russia with ammunition to prolong its fighting in Ukraine, possibly in exchange for much-needed economic aid and military support to upgrade Kim’s forces. Both Pyongyang and Russia have rejected allegations from Washington and Seoul about North Korean arms sales to Russia.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in comments published by state media that Choe and Russian officials expressed a “strong will to promote strategic and tactical cooperation in defending the two countries’ core interests and establishing a new multipolarized international community” during their meetings to further strengthen it.” Command.”

Russia expressed its “deep gratitude” to North Korea for its “full support” in the war against Ukraine, the North Korean ministry said. It said Choe and Russian officials expressed “serious concerns” about the United States’ expansion of military cooperation with its Asian allies, which they blamed for heightening tensions in the region and threatening North Korea’s sovereignty and security interests.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula are at their highest in years after Kim used Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a distraction in recent months to step up his weapons tests and military demonstrations. The United States, South Korea and Japan have responded by stepping up their joint military exercises, which Kim portrays as invasion rehearsals, and tightening their deterrence plans based on nuclear-capable U.S. assets.

North Korea said on Friday it had conducted a test of what it said was a nuclear-capable underwater attack drone in response to a joint naval exercise by the United States, South Korea and Japan last week and continued to blame its rivals for tensions in the region.

Choe’s visit to Moscow came as Kim continues to use domestic political events to make provocative threats of nuclear conflict.

Last week, Kim told parliament in Pyongyang that North Korea was abandoning its long-standing goal of peaceful unification with war-torn rival South Korea and ordered the North’s constitution to be rewritten to cement the South as its most hostile foreign adversary. He accused South Korea of ​​acting as “high-profile stooges” of the Americans and repeated the threat that if provoked, he would use his nuclear weapons to destroy the South.

Analysts say North Korea could aim to weaken South Korea’s voice in the regional nuclear standoff and eventually force direct deals with Washington to cement its status as a nuclear weapons state.