On February 11, North Korea’s ambassador to the Russian Federation Kim Hyun Joong held a meeting in Moscow with senior Russian lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev. Also present at the talks was Oleg Melnichenko, a member of the Russian parliament’s upper house and chairperson of a parliamentary group that fosters cooperation with the North Korean Supreme People’s Assembly.

The meeting between North Korea’s top diplomat in Moscow and Russian lawmakers largely focused on one of the topics common to Moscow-Pyongyang interactions, namely economic collaboration.

The gathering, however, also had a broader purpose, with Kosachev saying that the goal of Monday’s meeting was