Lukashenko flew into Pyongyang to a red-carpet welcome, where he was greeted by North Korea's foreign minister and dozens of small children waving the flags of both countries. He later met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and the Belarusian side published a photograph of the two men embracing. Lukashenko also paid his respects at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, a mausoleum where the preserved bodies of former rulers Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are displayed.
Military cooperation between North Korea, Belarus, and Russia has intensified in the context of the Ukraine war. North Korea has provided Moscow with millions of rounds of ammunition for its war in Ukraine. North Korea also sent troops to help Russia expel Ukrainian forces who invaded its western Kursk region in August 2024.
Belarus allowed itself to be used as a launchpad for Russia's invasion in February 2022 and subsequently agreed to host Russian tactical nuclear missiles on its territory, which borders three NATO alliance countries. Both North Korea and Belarus have lived for years under international sanctions, the former mainly because of its nuclear weapons programme and the latter over its human rights record and backing for Putin in Ukraine. They have engaged at different times with US President Donald Trump.
Trump met Kim three times in 2018 and 2019, during his first term in the White House, but their encounters failed to yield substantive results. Trump said last year he would 'love another meeting' with Kim. S.
dropped its 'absurd obsession' with getting North Korea to give up nuclear weapons. Trump last year re-established direct contact with Lukashenko, who had been treated as a pariah by his predecessor Joe Biden. In recent months, the US has begun to ease sanctions on Belarus in return for releases of political prisoners.
Lukashenko's trip to North Korea comes just six days after he met Trump's envoy John Coale and announced the freeing of 250 more detainees. The US side has said Lukashenko may soon visit the White House.