Russian President Vladimir Putin praised North Korea on Tuesday for "firmly supporting" his war in Ukraine ahead of an East Asia trip, featuring stops in Pyongyang and Vietnam.The Kremlin leader is scheduled to touch down on Tuesday night for his first visit to North Korea in 24 years, with a confrontation between North and South Korean troops on their shared border highlighting regional security tensions."We highly appreciate that the DPRK is firmly supporting the special military operation of Russia being conducted in Ukraine," Putin wrote in an article published by North Korean state media, referring to the isolated country by its official acronym.Moscow and Pyongyang are "now actively developing a many-sided partnership," he added.Russia and North Korea have been allies since the latter's founding after World War II, and the pair have developed stronger relations since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.Washington and its allies accuse North Korea of supplying Russia with much-needed arms, including ballistic missiles for use on the battlefield in Ukraine. Pyongyang has denied the allegations, but ahead of his trip on Tuesday, Putin thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for backing his country's war effort.The Kremlin chief praised North Korea for "defending their interests very effectively despite the U.S.

economic pressure, provocation, blackmail and military threats that have lasted for decades."He also hailed Moscow and Pyongyang for "maintaining the common line and stand at the UN."Pyongyang said the visit showed bilateral ties "are getting stronger day by day" and would "give fresh vitality to the development of the good-neighborly cooperative relations between the two countries," the official Korean Central News Agency reported.