North Korea on Wednesday recognised two Russian-backed breakaway s0-called “people’s republics” in eastern Ukraine as independent states, a separatist leader and a Russian state news agency said.
The move makes North Korea only the third country after Russia and Syria to recognise the two breakaway entities, the Donetsk (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republics (LPR), in Ukraine’s Donbas region.
In a post on his Telegram channel, DPR leader Denis Pushilin said he hoped for “fruitful cooperation” and increased trade with North Korea, an isolated, nuclear-armed state more than 4,000 miles (6,500 km) away.
The DPR’s embassy in Moscow posted a photo on its Telegram channel of a ceremony in which North Korea’s ambassador to Moscow Sin Hong-chol handed a certificate of recognition to DPR envoy Olga Makeyeva….