THE DPRK W ILL «ALWAYS STAND IN THE SAME TRENCH WITH THE ARMY AND PEOPLE OF RUSSIA»

The words quoted in the title of the article, spoken by Kim Yo Jong, the native sister of the DPRK leader Kim Jong Un, the de-facto second person in the state, express as fully and eloquently as possible the essence of North Korea's policy aimed at unconditional support of the Russian special military operation (SMO) in Ukraine. Pyongyang demonstrates an unprecedented degree of support for Moscow in the international arena on key issues. The aforementioned statement of January 27 this year by Kim Yo Jong, the sister of the DPRK leader, was the strongest, but one of many in a chain of similar steps in the DPRK's consistent line of support for Russia in its confrontation with the West. Among these: the establishment in July 2022 of formal diplomatic relations with the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. The DPRK, having officially recognized on October 4, 2022 the results of referendums in the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions about joining Russia and legality of the fact of their joining Russia, became the first and so far the only state in the world, which dared to take such a courageous step. As 02.03.2022, and 23.02.2023, the DPRK voted against the resolutions of the UN GA, which condemned Russia for conducting SMO in Ukraine. Such partners, de facto allies as North Korea, identified at the end of the year since the start of SMO, Russia in the world can be counted on the fingers of one hand.