Overview
- A pact the two leaders signed Thursday in Pyongyang caps Lukashenko’s first official visit, which included a formal welcome in Kim Il-sung Square.
- Kim Jong-un called the treaty a legal base for stable ties, while Alexander Lukashenko said the two economies fit together and relations enter a new phase.
- Belarus’s foreign minister said the partners will work across areas from agriculture to information and will map priority projects during the two-day visit.
- Both capitals back Russia’s war in Ukraine, with South Korean and Western services estimating North Korea sent thousands of troops and munitions and about 2,000 of its soldiers were killed, while Belarus served as a 2022 staging ground.
- The visit drew rights and sanctions scrutiny, as groups document torture, public executions and prison camps in North Korea and Western governments cite Belarus’s post-2020 crackdown on dissent.