- Photos released by North Korean state media show Kim Jong Un's huge portraits of Vladimir Putin.
- The images show the leader giving Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu a personal tour.
- Shoigu is in the country to discuss military issues and regional security.
Kim Jong Un decorated his walls with huge portraits of Russian President Vladimir Putin during a tour of a state office building, state media images show.
The portraits were visible as the North Korean leader gave a personal tour to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
Shoigu was attending a banquet at the Central Committee of the Workers' Party headquarters in Pyongyang, per the Daily Mail. It comes as the country celebrated the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, which took place from 1950 to 1953.
In the bizarre images, Kim and Shoigu can be seen walking down a corridor while huge portraits of Putin and Kim loom over them from either side.
In a separate photo, a large picture of Kim and Putin shaking hands fills the background as officials toast what appear to be glasses of wine. The image of the leaders was taken during their meeting in Vladivostok, Russia in 2019, the Mail reported.
The Korean Central News Agency said Kim and Shoigu reached agreements on Wednesday on "matters of mutual concern in the field of national defense and security and on the regional and international security environment," per the Associated Press.
But Shoigu's visit to North Korea also sheds some light on the defense minister's current standing in Russia, Simon Miles, an assistant professor at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy and a historian of the Soviet Union and US-Soviet relations, previously told Insider.
Miles said it was "a humiliation for Russia, and for Shoigu personally, to have to go and break bread and glad hand" with the North Koreans.
North Korea has seemed to side with Russia over the latter's invasion of Ukraine. The Biden administration has accused the country of sending arms to Russia to help with the fight, something which the North Koreans have denied, the AP reported.
In a greeting message to Putin last month, Kim said he wanted to work toward "strategic cooperation" between Pyongyang and Moscow, and desired to be "holding hands firmly with the Russian president."