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Russia announced on Wednesday that Vladimir Putin will donate about seventy animals to Kim Jong-un for his zoo.
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Russia’s Environment Ministry said the animals included a lioness, two bears, two yaks and more than 60 birds.
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The new series of animals is another attempt by Putin to strengthen his alliance with North Korea.
Moscow has sent Pyongyang another tranche of animals as Russian leader Vladimir Putin looks to strengthen his alliance with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
This time the contingent of animals numbered about 70, according to a statement posted Wednesday by Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
The statement described the animals as a gesture of friendship from Putin to North Korea and listed among the transfers a female African lion, two bears, two yaks, five white cockatoos, 25 different species of pheasants and 40 mandarin ducks.
They will be delivered from the Moscow Zoo to the Pyongyang Central Zoo, the statement said.
“I am sure the animals and birds will be well cared for. They will not get sick and will quickly get used to their new home,” Alexander Kozlov, the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, said in the statement.
Kozlov’s ministry said it had previously sent birds such as eagles, cranes and parrots to Pyongyang, but it was the first time Russia had donated mammals.
Putin recently used animal diplomacy to cozy up to Kim. In August, the Times of London, citing a veterinary source in Russia, reported that Russian leader Pyongyang had sent 20 purebred white horses.
Kim had previously given Putin two Pungsan hunting dogs during his one-day visit to Pyongyang in June. State media depicted the trip as a rosy meeting between friends, publishing dozens of photos of the two leaders taking a ride in a car, playing with dogs and strolling through presidential gardens.
Putin and Kim took turns behind the wheel of a Russian Aurus limousine in June 2024.North Korean state media
They have built a public image of their close relationship amid a US-led global effort to isolate Russia and North Korea. The West says both countries have violated international law through Moscow’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine and Pyongyang’s repeated ballistic missile tests.
Putin and Kim have since turned to each other for help, reaching a mutual defense deal in June.
Moscow hopes to lean on North Korea as an additional, vital source of manpower, ammunition and older artillery systems for its war against Ukraine, while Pyongyang has received food, money and aid for its nuclear weapons programs.
The burgeoning partnership between the two countries represents yet another way for Russia to delay the significant collapse that Western sanctions could cause. The Kremlin is waging a war of attrition in Ukraine, sending men and military equipment to the front lines in the hope of outliving Kiev’s Western-dependent resources.
As the likelihood of a protracted conflict increases, European NATO members such as Germany and Poland have increased their defense spending. Military spending in West and Central Asia reached $588 billion in 2023, or an increase of about 62% since 2014, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
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