President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and North Korean leader kim jong un Talks took place in the North Korean capital on Thursday and a friendship and cooperation treaty was signed, as the two Russian allies move closer amid their confrontation with the US-led West.
Lukashenko, who was in Pyongyang Two-day official visit, According to his press service, the document was described as “fundamental” and that relations between the two countries were “entering a new phase”. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said Friday the leaders discussed promoting high-level cooperation and visits and exchanged views on unspecified “international and regional issues of mutual concern.”
Belarus is a close ally of Russia. Lukashenko allowed Moscow to use Belarusian territory as a staging ground for the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and later authorized the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Kim has it too tilted its foreign policy towards Moscow In recent years, thousands of troops and large quantities of weapons have been sent to support Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, while portraying the North as part of a united front against Washington.
The last meeting of Lukashenko and Kim was in Beijing in September 2025.
“Yes, we did not have close cooperation, mainly through our own fault. But I am extremely pleased to note that cooperation has now become much stronger,” Lukashenko said after Thursday’s meeting.
Taking advantage of his close ties with Putin, Kim is pursuing an increasingly assertive foreign policy aimed at expanding ties with countries that confront Washington as he seeks to break out of isolation and strengthen his regional influence.
Chang Eun-jeong, a spokesman for South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles North Korea-related matters, said the meeting with Lukashenko is in line with Kim’s foreign policy that embraces the ideas of a “multipolar world order” and an “anti-West alliance.” He said the countries could also pursue stronger three-way cooperation with Moscow.
However, Lukashenko is also improving relations with the Trump administration, which announced on Thursday restrictions eased On a group of financial and potash companies linked to Belarus. The move comes as the war in the Middle East has reduced global fertilizer supplies, limiting access for some American farmers.
john coleTrump’s special envoy to Belarus described in a recent interview how he tried to build rapport with Lukashenko through informal, even rude, drunken lunch exchanges while pressing for the release of political prisoners.
At the meeting between their leaders, Belarusian and North Korean officials also signed several other agreements and memorandums on cooperation in specific areas such as education, health care, agriculture and others.
“In today’s reality of global change, when global powers openly ignore and violate international law, independent countries need to cooperate more closely, strengthen efforts aimed at protecting their sovereignty and improving the well-being of our citizens,” Lukashenko said.
Lukashenko’s press service quoted Kim as expressing “solidarity and full support” for Belarus and speaking out “against unlawful pressure on Belarus from the West.” KCNA said Lukashenko told Kim that their governments share “the same views on international affairs.”
The leaders exchanged gifts, with Kim presenting Lukashenko with a sword and a large vase bearing the Belarusian leader’s image. Lukashenko, among other things, gave Kim an assault rifle made in Belarus. “Just in case the enemies appear,” Lukashenko said.
Kim also hosted Lukashenko for an ice-skating show and a formal welcome ceremony before personally seeing him off at Pyongyang’s airport, according to Belarusian and North Korean reports.
Kim has suspended all meaningful dialogue with Washington and Seoul since the failure of his second summit with US President Donald Trump in 2019 over US-led sanctions on North Korea. Kim’s government has been rejecting Trump’s talks offers since the US president entered a second term, and has called on Washington to drop demands for North Korea’s denuclearization as a precondition to reviving talks.
