North Korea joined a handful of other countries in supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, asserting that U.S. “high-handedness and arbitrariness” is the “root cause” of the crisis.

Pyongyang also tested what state media described as systems for a new “reconnaissance satellite.”

This followed a missile launch hiatus during most of February amid the Beijing Winter Olympics. North Korean and Chinese leaders Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping exchanged messages about the event, which DPRK state media later reported.

The number of vaccine doses allocated to North Korea dropped drastically