SEOUL: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un on Thursday, after slamming US policy towards the nuclear-armed state as “dangerous”.

Lavrov hailed North Korea as a “close neighbour and long-time partner” in a meeting that lasted a little over an hour, Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

The veteran envoy’s two-day visit is expected to lay the groundwork for a trip to the country by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was invited by Kim last month at a high-profile summit in Russia’s far east.

Earlier in the day, Lavrov lashed out at what he termed a “dangerous” US policy towards North Korea while touting the “new, strategic level” of relations between Moscow and Pyongyang.

“Like our North Korean friends, we are seriously worried about the intensification of military activity of the United States, Japan and South Korea in the region and by Washington’s policies,” Lavrov told journalists, according to Russian news agencies.