North Korea and Russian state media have joined forces to fight “fake news” about topics including Pyongyang's contentious relationship with Washington.

Wearing loyalty badges of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, the directors of the Korean Central News Agency and the TASS news agency signed a cooperation agreement on Tuesday during a visit to Pyongyang by a Russian delegation that also included the head of Channel One state television.

“We increasingly often see misrepresentation of information in the news environment, and we must counter the dissemination of such fake news,” said central news agency director Kim Chan Gwang. “I believe that KCNA and TASS news agencies must join efforts towards this goal.”

While he didn't specify what “fake news” he meant, the head of the North Korean foreign ministry's information department on Monday praised TASS and Channel One for “fairly and objectively” reporting the “principal positions of the leadership of the people's republic in Korean-American relations”.

An attempt to resume stalled denuclearisation talks between the United States and North Korea collapsed in Stockholm on Saturday. Kim Jong-un's regime launched a ballistic missile off of its coast last week.

The KCNA's propaganda-heavy coverage suggests that almost any statement that differs from the Pyongyang line would be considered fake news. An article on Wednesday about Korean War commemorations south of the border thundered that “the South Korean authorities' rhetoric about reconciliation and peace only prove that they are false trumpeting to cover up their dark intention of escalating confrontation”.