A screengrab from video aired by North Korean state TV shows the country's leader Kim Jong Un being driven around Pyongyang by Russian President Vladimir Putin, on June 19, 2024, in the Russian-made Aurus limousine gifted to Kim by Putin during their summit earlier in the day. KRT/NORTH KOREAN STATE TV

Russian President Vladimir Putin's top foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters Wednesday that the Russian leader had exchanged gifts with North Korea's Kim Jong Un during their summit in Pyongyang.

Putin gave Kim a second Russian-made Aurus limousine — a hulking car the North Korean leader is said to have taken a shine to during a previous summit in 2023 in Russia's Far East. Putin is often driven around in an Aurus, and he was seen during the 2023 meeting showing his off to Kim. Several months after that encounter, Kim got his first Aurus delivered, courtesy of the Kremlin.

The leaders were shown in images broadcast by North Korea's state-run media taking turns driving each other around in Kim's new limo on Wednesday, smiling in the black leather interior.

Other gifts from Putin to Kim on Wednesday included a tea set and a naval officer's dirk, or small dagger.

Ushakov said during the summit that Kim's presents to Putin included artwork depicting the Russian leader, and the North's state-run media said Thursday that Kim had also given his counterpart a pair of Pungsan dogs.

The men were shown in video aired by North Korean state TV admiring the two animals, a local breed of dog, which were tied to a fence covered in roses in the gardens of the Kumsusan Guesthouse in the country's capital.

The Reuters news agency said Pungsan dogs are bred in the north of the country as hunting animals.

Kim was also seen feeding carrots to a horse during the leaders' stroll through the garden. Horses are intertwined in the mythology on which North Korea's ruling Kim dynasty bases its power. Kim has previously been shown astride a galloping white horse near Mount Paektu, the Korean Peninsula's highest peak, which is revered as sacred in the North.

Putin has also been shown by his country's state media riding a horse, topless on at least one occasion.

Former South Korean president Moon Jae-in was also gifted a pair of Pungsan dogs from Kim in 2018, during a fleeting period of much more cordial inter-Korean relations.


Russia's President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pet a pair of Pungsan dogs gifted to Putin by Kim during a walk in the garden of the Kumsusan Guesthouse in Pyongyang, North Korea, in an image released by the Korean Central News Agency on June 20, 2024. KCNA VIA REUTERS


A screengrab from video aired by North Korean state TV on June 20, 2024 shows the country's leader Kim Jong Un feeding a horse as visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin looks on. KRT/REUTERS

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