Top Asian News 3:30 a.m. GMT

Russia and North Korea have had a complicated relationship over the decades

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — President Vladimir Putin is in North Korea for a summit with its leader, Kim Jong Un, as the two nations deepen their cooperation. The visit comes amid growing concerns about an arrangement in which Pyongyang provides Moscow with badly needed munitions to fuel Russia’s war in Ukraine in exchange for economic assistance and technology to enhance the threat posed by Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile program. Despite their often aligning interests, relations between Russia and North Korea have experienced highs and lows. Some key events: 1945-1948 — Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula ends with Tokyo’s World War II defeat in 1945 but the peninsula is eventually divided into a Soviet-backed north and a U.S.-backed south.