Pyongyang, July 27 (KCNA) -- Talks between Kang Sun Nam, minister of National Defence of the DPRK, and Sergei Shoigu, minister of Defence of the Russian Federation, were held in Pyongyang on July 26.

Present there from the DPRK side were Jong Kyong Thaek, director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army, and Im Chon Il, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, and from the Russian side were Aleksei Krivoruchko, vice-minister of Defence, Andrei Rudenko, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, and other members of the Russian military delegation and Alexandr Matsegora, Russian ambassador to the DPRK, and staff members of his embassy.

At the talks, the two sides exchanged views on the issue of further strengthening the strategic and traditional DPRK-Russia relations of friendship and expanding and developing the militant friendship and cooperation between the armies of the two countries in conformity with the historic common understanding and agreement reached by the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un and the respected President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, and on regional and international issues of mutual concern before reaching a complete consensus of views.

The talks proceeded in a comradely and friendly atmosphere. -0-