Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit North Korea this week for a two-day visit, the two countries announced Monday after months of speculation and amid international concerns about their military cooperation.
Last year, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un participated traveled to a remote Siberian missile launch facility to meet with Putin. After that summit, Kim invited the Russian leader to visit Pyongyang.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said Putin will make a state visit on Tuesday and Wednesday. Details were not immediately provided. Russia confirmed the visit in a simultaneous announcement.
It will be Putin’s first visit to North Korea in 24 years. He first visited Pyongyang in July 2000, months after his first election, when he met Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, who was then ruling the country.
There are growing concerns about an arms deal in which Pyongyang would provide Moscow with desperately needed ammunition to fuel Putin’s war in Ukraine, in return for economic aid and technology transfers that would increase the threat from Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile programs.
Military, economic and other cooperation between North Korea and Russia has increased sharply since Kim visited the Russian Far East in September for a meeting with Putin, the first since 2019.
U.S. and South Korean officials have accused the North of supplying Russia with artillery, missiles and other military equipment to help prolong the fighting in Ukraine, possibly in exchange for key military technologies and aid. Both Pyongyang and Moscow have denied allegations about North Korean arms transfers.
Any arms trade with North Korea would violate multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions that Russia, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, has previously endorsed.
Andrei Lankov, a North Korea expert at Kookmin University in Seoul, noted that Pyongyang hopes to get better weapons in return for supplying artillery ammunition and short-range missiles from Moscow.
Reuters
Lankov noted that while Russia may be reluctant to share its state-of-the-art military technologies with North Korea, the country is eager to receive munitions from Pyongyang. “There is never enough ammunition in a war; there is a high demand for it,” Lankov told The Associated Press.
There were signs that Kim was preparing for a lavish celebration for Putin as he sought to raise the profile of their relationship with his domestic audience. The North Korea-focused NK News website said Monday that analysis of commercial satellite images suggests the North may be preparing a huge parade in a square in the country’s capital, Pyongyang. Kim has made Russia his main focus in recent months as he seeks to strengthen his regional position and expand cooperation with countries confronting the United States, embracing the idea of what he describes as a “new Cold War” .
“This visit is a victory”
During phone calls with South Korea’s vice foreign minister on Friday, US Vice Secretary of State Kurt Campbell expressed concern that Putin’s visit to the North would result in further military cooperation between the countries that could potentially undermine stability in the region, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. rack. “The list of countries willing to welcome Putin is shorter than ever, but for Kim Jong Un this visit is a victory,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
“Not only does the summit improve North Korea’s standing among countries opposed to the US-led international order, it also helps strengthen Kim’s domestic legitimacy. Russia cannot replace China economically, but increasing cooperation with Moscow shows that Pyongyang has options.”
Moscow has said it “highly appreciates” Pyongyang’s support for Russia’s military action in Ukraine and cited its “close and fruitful cooperation” at the United Nations and other international organizations.
Russia and China have repeatedly blocked efforts by the US and its partners to impose new UN sanctions on North Korea over its barrage of banned ballistic missile tests. In March, a Russian veto at the United Nations ended oversight of U.N. sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear program, prompting Western accusations that Moscow is trying to avoid scrutiny as it allegedly violates sanctions to acquire weapons from Pyongyang for use in Ukraine.
At a press conference in March, South Korean Defense Minister Shin Wonsik said North Korea had already shipped about 7,000 containers full of ammunition and other military equipment to Russia. In return, Shin said North Korea had received more than 9,000 Russian containers, likely filled with aid. Kim has also used Russia’s war in Ukraine as a distraction to boost his weapons development as he pursues a nuclear arsenal that could pose a viable threat to the United States and its Asian allies. This prompted the US and South Korea to expand their combined military exercises and sharpen their nuclear deterrent strategies, which were built around strategic US assets.
Earlier this year, Putin sent Kim a luxury Aurus Senat limousine, which he showed to the North Korean leader when they met for a summit in September. Observers said the shipment violated a U.N. resolution aimed at pressuring the North to give up its nuclear weapons program by banning the supply of luxury items to North Korea.
Putin has consistently sought to mend ties with Pyongyang as part of his efforts to restore the global influence of his country and its Soviet-era alliances. Moscow’s ties with North Korea weakened after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Kim Jong Un first met Putin in 2019 in Russia’s eastern port city of Vladivostok.
