MOSCOW — Russia’s relations with many Western nations, including the United States, may be at their worst levels since the Cold War, but its relationship with North Korea is blooming faster than the famously lush flower beds of Moscow’s Alexander Garden.

On Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced an agreement to designate 2015 a “Year of Friendship” with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, which is regarded by much of the world as a pariah state.

The announcement came six weeks after President Vladimir V. Putin’s personal spokesman confirmed that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, would visit Moscow on May 9 to attend a commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany. It is expected to be Mr. Kim’s first trip abroad since assuming power in 2011.

Tellingly, news of the Year of Friendship came on the same day that Berlin officials said that the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, had declined Mr. Putin’s invitation to attend the ceremony. The German government cited Russia’s policies in Ukraine, where the Kremlin has annexed Crimea and backed violent separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk, as the reason for her refusal to attend.