North Korea's vice public security minister departs for Russia

Vice Public Security Minister Ri Song-chol, left, speaks with the Russian ambassador to North Korea Aleksandr Matsegora in Pyongynag, in this photo provided by North's Korean Central News Agency, June 10. Yonhap

North Korea's vice public security minister has left for Russia, state media reported Tuesday, amid deepening cooperation between the two nations following their leaders' summit last year.

A North Korean delegation, headed by Vice Public Security Minister Ri Song-chol, left Pyongyang the previous day to visit Russia, the Korean Central News Agency said in a one-sentence dispatch, without disclosing details about the itinerary.

The North's official plans to meet with Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Russia's internal minister, and discuss "fundamental issues of cooperation," Russia's embassy in Pyongyang said on its Telegram account.

The delegation will discuss ways to cooperate with Russia in the "law enforcement area" in a situation needed to ensure social and political stability when it comes to "new challenges" that have occurred in Russia, the embassy said, without elaborating what "new challenges" mean.

There is a possibility that the cash-strapped North could discuss the issue of dispatching its workers abroad as Russia is believed to be undergoing a labor shortage due to its war in Ukraine.

North Korea and Russia have been bolstering military ties and expanding the scope of cooperation in various fields since the North's leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin held the summit in September last year. (Yonhap)