Belarusian President Lukashenko arrives in North Korea for talks with Kim Jong Un
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko arrived in the North Korean capital on Wednesday for an official visit during which he is due to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Lukashenko was welcomed at Pyongyang airport by North Korean Deputy Prime Minister Kim Tok Hun and later in the day by Kim Jong Un himself in a grand ceremony at Kim Il Sung Square, named after his grandfather who founded the state, according to the Belarusian president’s press service.
North Korean state media said Kim and Lukashenko laid flowers at a memorial honoring Soviet soldiers who died during the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. The conflict primarily pitted North Korean and Chinese forces against South Korea and U.S.-led United Nations troops, although Moscow also provided munitions, fighter jets and pilots to support the North.
Lukashenko also visited a mausoleum displaying the embalmed bodies of Kim’s grandfather and father, the country’s first two leaders, according to the official North Korean news agency.
Lukashenko, Belarus’s autocratic ruler for more than three decades, is a close ally of the Kremlin and allowed Russia to use Belarusian territory as a staging ground for Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and subsequently authorized the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Kim has also prioritized Russia in recent years, sending thousands of troops and large quantities of weapons to support Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, while pursuing a more assertive foreign policy aimed at expanding ties with countries opposed to Washington.
PHOTOS: Belarusian President Lukashenko arrives in North Korea for talks with Kim Jong Un
In a speech to North Korea’s parliament on Monday, Kim accused the United States of “state terrorism and aggression” globally, apparently referring to the war in the Middle East, and called on Pyongyang to play a stronger role in a united front against Washington amid growing anti-US sentiment.
According to the Belarusian news agency Belta, bilateral relations between North Korea and Belarus are on the agenda of the negotiations between the two leaders. Lukashenko last met Kim in September 2025 in Beijing and was invited to visit North Korea, the agency reported. In 2024, Belarusian Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov visited North Korea.
Ryzhenkov said the two countries would sign a treaty of friendship and cooperation during Lukashenko’s visit.
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AP writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed from Seoul, South Korea.
