On Wednesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to demonstrate the country's newest arsenal of weapons.
In addition to inviting Chinese officials, Pyongyang extended an invitation to the Russian group led by Mr. Shoigu.
They will be present during the enormous military parades that are customarily held in Pyongyang to honor the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the armistice that ended the Korean War.
Among the various types of weapons on display was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) called the Hwasong.
It is considered to be the country's first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) to employ solid propellants, which allows it to be launched more quickly than ones that use liquid fuel and was successfully tested in April.
According to NK News, a website that specializes in reporting on North Korea, two new designs for drones were also displayed at the event. One of these designs was said to resemble the primary offensive strike drone employed by the United States Air Force.
The visit of Mr. Shoigu comes at a time when charges have been made that Pyongyang is supplying Russia with armaments that are being used in Russia's war in Ukraine. Both Pyongyang and Moscow have denied the validity of these accusations.
According to the state agency KCNA of North Korea, Kim Jong Un and Sergei Shoigu spoke about "matters of mutual concern" in the spheres of national defense and the international security situation.
The visit of the delegates for North Korea's Victory Day, which commemorates the cessation of hostilities in 1953 and is observed annually in the North, is scheduled to come to a close on Thursday with a large military display. Because there was not time to negotiate a peace treaty before the fighting ended, the Korean peninsula is technically still at war.
Russia and China have both been reliable partners of North Korea for many years. Because of their arrival, Mr. Kim has finally reopened the country's borders to visitors from other countries for the first time since the Covid outbreak.
Pyongyang extended invitations to representatives of foreign governments for a military display for the last time in February of 2018.
KCNA reported that Mr. Kim had a "friendly talk" with Mr. Shoigu, who gave Mr. Kim an autographed letter from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr. Shoigu also reportedly told Mr. Kim that North Korea's military is "the most powerful" in the world after the meeting.
Additionally, a personal letter from Mr. Xi to Mr. Kim was delivered by the visiting Chinese delegation, which was led by a member of the politburo, Li Hongzhong.
According to reports, Mr. Kim sent to Mr. Li the following message: "the Korean people will never forget the fact that the brave soldiers of the Chinese People's Volunteers shed blood to bring about the war victory."
In the fall of 1950, Beijing had dispatched troops to North Korea to lend support to that country's war effort against South Korea. Additionally, North Korea received backing from what was then known as the Soviet Union during the conflict.
Due to their shared antipathy against the United States, Russia has continued to be a natural friend of North Korea even after the Soviet Union's fall in 1991.
The participation of Chinese and Russian envoys in this year's Victory Day parade has led some observers to speculate that the limits placed on Covid may be loosened in the near future.
This comes several weeks after photographs of people in North Korea going about their daily lives without masks were shown on the country's state-run media.
Early in the year 2020, the isolated nation severed all commercial and diplomatic links, including those with Russia and China, who it considered to be its most important economic and political partners.