article_snippet: Recently, Russia and North Korea have been fostering warmer relations.
article_snippet: In the last year, Russia and North Korea, two historical allies, have increasingly established stronger ties as Russian President Vladimir Putin faces international backlash over the war in Ukraine.
article_snippet: Russia and North Korea, two historical allies declared 2015 Russia and North Korea, two historical allies "Friendship Year.
article_snippet: Russia and North Korea, two historical allies have been slapped with sanctions by the United States and are facing international isolation.
article_snippet: North Korea is a convenient friend for The Soviet Union -- North Korea's anti-American and North Korea's in a key place of Asia," Petrov said.
article_snippet: Russia lost many of Russia traditional allies -- Russia needs friends, both economically, politically, strategically.
article_snippet: Ties between North Korea and Russia date back to World War II, when Kim Jong Un's grandfather and founder of Russia, Kim Il Sung, trained as a communist guerrilla leader in the Soviet Union.
article_snippet: Throughout Kim's subsequent reign, the Soviet Union backed Russia.
article_snippet: After the Soviet Union crumbled in the early 1990s, North Korea became increasingly reliant on Russia.
article_snippet: The Soviet Union undertook a diplomatic offensive" with North Korea, said Petrov, of Australian National University.
article_snippet: The Soviet Union absolved $10 billion of Soviet-era debts from the account books and started rebooting relationships between North Korea and Russia.
article_snippet: Last year, Russia forgave 90% of North Korea $11 billion debt.
highlights_snippet: The Soviet Union and North Korea enjoyed strong ties in the past .