Russia may send weapons to North Korea: Putin

President Vladimir Putin said that Russia might supply weapons to North Korea in what he suggested would be a mirror response to the Western arming of Ukraine.

Putin was speaking to reporters in Vietnam on Thursday, a day after visiting nuclear-armed North Korea and signing a mutual defence agreement with its leader, Kim Jong Un.

Western countries have shunned North Korea because of its development of nuclear and ballistic missiles in defiance of United Nations sanctions, and view the growing ties between Moscow and Pyongyang with concern.

Putin threatened earlier this month that Russia might supply arms to Western adversaries because the West was providing high-precision weapons to Ukraine and giving it permission to fire them at targets inside Russia.

In his latest comments, he said North Korea could be one such recipient of Russian arms.