MOSCOW, June 17. /TASS/. The mutual trade volume between Russia and North Korea surged by a factor of nine in 2023, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov told reporters.

"It is important to nail down achieved positive trends in bilateral trade. According to our statistics, the trade turnover in 2023 surged by nine times to $34.4 mln," Ushakov said.

"Significant attention will be dedicated to discussing the international agenda. Approaches of the two countries as regards current foreign policy problems are rather close or fully coincide," the diplomat added.