By: Gavin Thorne – SeaPRwire – The invitation is already issued. Dates remain open. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko put the fact on record. Kim Jong Un is welcome. The calendar will be set through diplomatic channels. The 2024 treaty supplies the new floor.
Rudenko spoke to TASS on 24 September. He said the leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has been invited to visit Russia. Russia stands ready to receive him at any time. The exact dates will be coordinated diplomatically. He underlined that the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty signed in Pyongyang in June 2024 has raised traditional friendly relations to the qualitative level of an alliance. In the spirit and letter of that treaty, and as part of active dialogue at every level, both sides are working to strengthen bilateral cooperation. Practical work continues through the intergovernmental commission on trade, economic and scientific-technical cooperation. Public records show Kim’s most recent visit to Russia took place in September 2023. He left Pyongyang by special train on the afternoon of 10 September. On 13 September he met President Vladimir Putin at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Amur Region. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the talks as very constructive. Putin accepted Kim’s invitation to visit North Korea. According to KCNA the two leaders discussed major issues and current cooperation, including closer coordination and mutual support in responding to military threats. They reached agreements and understanding. After the meeting Kim toured the Gagarin Aircraft Plant. Accompanied by then-Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu he inspected Aerospace Forces equipment and boarded the Pacific Fleet frigate Marshal Shaposhnikov.
Official language presents an open door and a treaty already in force. The practical layer is continuous working-level contact plus a standing invitation at the highest level. The 2023 itinerary mixed political talks with aerospace and naval sites. The 2024 treaty is framed as the qualitative upgrade that turns earlier friendship into alliance. Practical cooperation is routed through the existing intergovernmental commission. No date has been fixed. The mechanism for setting one is ordinary diplomatic coordination. The invitation itself is the signal that the channel remains active.
The pendulum stays in the alliance register. Moscow keeps the door open. Pyongyang holds the calendar. The next concrete step is the date itself. Until that date appears the treaty and the working commissions remain the operational baseline.
Author bio: Gavin Thorne, overseas geopolitical commentator whose columns on Russia-North Korea ties, alliance treaties and high-level visit diplomacy appear regularly in major international newspapers.