Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un have vowed to strengthen cooperation, days ahead of Putin's summit in Alaska with Donald Trump, Pyongyang's state media reported Wednesday.

Putin and Kim spoke by phone in a "warm comradely atmosphere" on Tuesday and confirmed "their will to strengthen cooperation in the future", the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

The call came three days before the summit between Putin and Trump, the first between a sitting US and Russian president since 2021, as Trump seeks to broker an end to Russia's more than three-year war in Ukraine.

North Korea has sent thousands of troops to Russia's Kursk region as well as weapons to aid its war effort, with Kim offering Moscow his full support for the war during talks last

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