By Berk Kutay Gokmen
ISTANBUL (AA) - North Korea and Russia’s ruling parties issued a joint statement pledging to continue developing relations between them and their two countries.
The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and the United Russia Party (URP) adopted the statement Thursday, according to North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency.
The statement, which was signed by Ri Hi Yong, secretary of the Central Committee of the WPK, and V.V. Yakushev, secretary of the General Council of the URP, celebrated the 80th founding anniversary of the WPK.
“Both sides reaffirmed their will to continue developing relations between the two parties and the two countries at a high level in light of the ties of friendship between the peoples of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the Russian Federation,” it said.
It said that mounting political and military tensions in the region and the globe are directly linked to the “aggressive politics of the West to continue maintaining at any cost the dangerous and non-constructive line to realize overall hegemonism for only the self-interest of the ruling class and the illegal interference in internal affairs of sovereign states.”
The URP expressed “firm support” for the measures taken by Pyongyang to bolster the country's defense capabilities, while the WPK expressed “firm solidarity” with Russia's stand on the crisis in Ukraine.
“It is necessary to defend and promote the establishment of a new world order in which the rights of all countries and peoples are reliably guaranteed without coercion from the West,” the statement added.