Pyongyang, March 1 (KCNA) -- Ri Hi Yong, Politburo member and secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the Central Inspection Commission of the WPK, on a visit to Russia as head of the WPK delegation, met Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, president of the Russian Federation, at the Kremlin in Moscow on February 27.

On the occasion, President Putin asked Ri Hi Yong to convey his warmest greetings and best wishes to Kim Jong Un, president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Ri Hi Yong courteously conveyed the militant greetings of Comrade Kim Jong Un to Vladimir Putin.

Noting that Kim Jong Un has paid deep attention to the development of the Russia-DPRK cooperative relations, Putin warmly welcomed the WPK delegation's current visit to Russia.

He highly appreciated once again the historic meaning of 2024 in which the traditional Russia-DPRK friendly relations were remarkably developed into the comprehensive strategic partnership.

The two countries are firmly linked with the excellent tradition of friendship and good neighborliness and militant friendship, he said, expressing thanks to the DPRK for its positive support to the Russian Federation.

He expressed the belief that the 2025-2027 protocol on the expansion and development in depth of multi-faceted cooperation between the Workers' Party of Korea and the United Russia Party, concluded this time, would make a great contribution to the development of the relations between the ruling parties of the two countries.

The talks proceeded in a comradely and friendly atmosphere.

Present there were Kim Song Nam, director of the International Department of the WPK Central Committee, Yuri Ushakov, aide to the president of Russia for Foreign Policy, Vladimir Vladimirovich Yakushev, secretary of the General Council of the United Russia Party and first vice-chairman of the Russian Federation Council, and Alexandr Kozlov, minister of Natural Resources and Ecology. -0-