Putin admits holding talks with Kim Jong-un about deploying North Korean troops

Vladimir Putin has admitted for the first time that he is in talks with Kim Jong-un on how to deploy North Korean soldiers against Ukrainian forces.

The Russian leader made the disclosure at the end of the Brics summit in Kazan, Russia, after it failed to produce the enlarged anti-West bloc the Kremlin had promised.

Moscow had wanted to impress its Western adversaries with a minimum of 12 new members signing up to the bloc in a “Brics Big Bang”.

However, the move appeared to have failed and, at a press conference closing the three-day event, Putin avoided answering how many countries had signed up.

“There are many countries that are showing interest. We have agreed on our partners, we have agreed on such a list,” he said. “We are going to send out invitations and proposals to future partner nations.”

Putin’s comments came a few hours after Russia’s lower house of parliament passed a Russia-North Korea “mutual military assistance” Bill on Thursday.

The Russian president agreed the deal with Kim earlier this year and Russia’s upper house of parliament is also likely to pass it within the next few days, potentially allowing North Korean soldiers to fight against Ukrainian forces.

Revealing the talks with Kim, Putin said at the Brics conference: “North Korea is serious about its commitment to us … We are in contact with our North Korean partners.”

US intelligence estimates that Russian forces are training up to 3,000 North Korean soldiers, although Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, has claimed the final contingent could be as large as 15,000 troops.

In response, South Korea has said it is considering sending military officers to Ukraine as advisers.

The Kremlin this week linked its Brics economic summit directly with its invasion of Ukraine when one of Putin’s leading aides told Russian media that the war had been discussed at an informal dinner for Brics leaders.

Moscow also promised there would be “a common position” on the war among the nations that attended the gathering.

However, a single paragraph in the summit communique only said that the 35 countries would aim at “a peaceful resolution of the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy”.

Analysts said the Kremlin’s insistence on linking Brics and Ukraine may have deterred new members from joining.

A Kazakh expert in Astana told The Telegraph that Kazakhstan had avoided signing up to Brics because of concerns that it could upset its relations with the West.

“Russia wants Brics to represent an anti-Western bloc, and it wasn’t in Kazakhstan’s interest to do this. It wants to work through the UN,” he said, preferring to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The Kremlin has been pressuring its allies all year to sign up to Brics as part of efforts to undermine international support for Ukraine.

Brics was set up in 2009 by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and was expanded in January by the Kremlin to add five more members, including Iran.

Putin had also hoped to persuade Brics members to commit to building an alternative to Swift, the international payment system that ejected Russia after it invaded Ukraine, but this also failed to materialise.

Despite the summit’s apparent shortfalls, the Kremlin’s propaganda channels still portrayed the event as a major success for Putin.

Television coverage of a roundtable event focused on Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general. He held bilateral meetings with Putin and other world leaders, including Xi Jinping, China’s president, and Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister.

At the final press conference, state journalists praised Putin for his global leadership, while the Russian leader criticised the West and blamed Ukraine for the war.

Putin also hinted at his support for Donald Trump, who is hoping to be elected US president for the second time next month.

“When Trump says that he wants to put an end to the war in Ukraine, I think that he is sincere,” Putin said.

Mr Trump has claimed he could end the war in Ukraine on his first day as president.