North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with Russia's natural resources minister Alexander Kozlov on Monday, state media KCNA reported, in the latest sign of growing ties between Pyongyang and Moscow.
During the meeting, Kim said cooperation in trade, science and technology should expand for the two countries' development and prosperity, according to the report published on Tuesday.
"It is necessary to mutually and powerfully propel the co-prosperity and development of the two countries by further promoting the inter-governmental trade, economic, scientific and technological exchange and cooperation in a more extensive and diversified way," Kim was quoted was saying in the report.
A delegation of the Russian army's Military Academy of the General Staff arrived in Pyongyang on Monday, state media reported, while a Pyongyang city council committee delegation also left for Russia.
The exchange between Pyongyang and Moscow came as South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, urged the two countries to end their military cooperation which he called illegal.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, discussed "unprecedented" strategic bilateral relations on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting in Brazil, Russian agencies reported.
"We are truly at an unprecedented stage in the development of our strategic relations of a comprehensive partnership," Russia's Interfax news agency cited Lavrov as saying at the meeting.