North Korean leader Kim Jong-un yesterday arrived in Russia for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin where they are expected to offer each other increased support in their escalating standoffs with the West.
Kim is expected to seek Russian economic aid and military technology in exchange for munitions to be used in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
After decades of complicated, hot-and-cold relations, Russia and North Korea have drawn closer since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last year. The bond has been driven by Putin’s need for war supplies and Kim’s efforts to boost his partnerships with traditional allies Moscow and Beijing as he tries to break out of diplomatic isolation.
Photo: KCNA via Reuters
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said that Kim boarded his personal train bound for Russia on Sunday afternoon, accompanied by members of the ruling party, government and military.
His final destination is uncertain. Many had assumed Kim and Putin would meet in Vladisvostok, a Russian city close to the border where the two leaders had their last meeting in 2019, and which Putin is visiting this week for an economic forum, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed only that Kim has entered Russia, and state news agency RIA-Novosti later reported his train had headed north after crossing the Razdolnaya River, taking it away from Vladivostok.
South Korean Yonhap news agency later published a photograph that it said showed the train in Ussuriysk, a city about 60km north of Vladivostok that has a sizeable ethnic Korean population.
Some Russian news media speculated that Kim was headed for the Vostochny spaceport, which Putin is to visit soon. Putin declined during the forum to say what he intended to do there. The launching facility is about 900km northwest of Ussuriysk, but the route there is circuitous and it is unclear how long Kim’s train would take to get there.
Peskov said Putin and Kim would meet after the Vladivostok forum, and that the meeting would include a lunch in Kim’s honor.
Officials identified in North Korean state media photographs might hint at what Kim could seek from Putin and what he would be willing to give.
Kim is apparently accompanied by Jo Chun-ryong, a ruling party official in charge of munitions policies who joined the leader on recent tours of factories producing artillery shells and missiles, the South Korean Ministry of Unification said.
Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu is to be part of the Russian delegation, Peskov said.
North Korea might have tens of millions of artillery shells and rockets based on Soviet designs that could give a huge boost to the Russian army, analysts say.
Kim might also seek badly needed energy and food supplies, analysts say.
South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lim Soo-suk said that Seoul was maintaining communication with Moscow while closely monitoring Kim’s visit.
“No UN member state should violate Security Council sanctions against North Korea by engaging in an illegal trade of arms, and must certainly not engage in military cooperation with North Korea that undermines the peace and stability of the international community,” Lim said.
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