According to KCNA:
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation decided to make 2015 in which fall the 70th anniversaries of Korea’s liberation and the victory in the great Patriotic War in Russia as a year of friendship between the two countries, prompted by the purpose to develop the bilateral relations onto a new higher stage in various fields including politics, economy and culture under a mutual agreement.
During the year of friendship the two countries are to invigorate exchanges of delegations and contacts between national institutions and regions and hold joint cultural events in Pyongyang and Moscow and other cities of the two countries.
Here is coverage in Yonhap:
North Korea and Russia will mark 2015 as a year of friendship and step up bilateral exchanges in political, economic and cultural sectors, the North’s official news agency said Wednesday.
“The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation decided to make 2015, in which falls the 70th anniversaries of Korea’s liberation and the victory in the great Patriotic War in Russia, as a year of friendship between the two countries,” the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a brief dispatch.
The countries will “develop the bilateral relations onto a new higher stage in various fields, including politics, economy and culture under a mutual agreement,” the KCNA said.
The two countries will also invigorate exchanges of delegations and contacts between their national institutions and regions, the report said, adding that joint cultural events will take place in Pyongyang and Moscow as well as other cities.
The designation came as the two countries are scurrying to tighten bilateral ties amid languid North-China relations.
Choe Ryong-hae, a governing party secretary, visited Russia in November as a special envoy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as part of efforts to improve relations.
In May, the North Korean leader is expected to attend a Russian ceremony in Moscow marking the 70th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. It would be the reclusive leader’s first foreign visit since taking power in December 2011.
Here are some recent Russia-DPRK engagement stories:
1. Russia-Korea pipeline development
2. DPRK and Russia set up business and exchange council
3. DPRK-Russia trade down in 2014
4. Russian investment in DPRK railway line and coal exports
5. Port No. 3 in Rason and coal shipments to South Korea
6. Russia forgives DPRK debt
You can read the full Yonhap story here:
N. Korea, Russia declare 2015 as friendship year: KCNA
Yonhap
2015-3-11
