SOUL: Foreign ministers of Russia and North Korea met in Pyongyang on Thursday, to discuss bolstering their military cooperation. The gathering comes on the heels of recent accusations by the United States that North Korea has been sending shipments of munitions to Russia to support its activities in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Pyongyang on Wednesday, commencing a two-day diplomatic mission. During a reception speech on the same day, Lavrov expressed gratitude for North Korea’s steadfast support in Russia’s efforts concerning Ukraine.
While Lavrov’s visit has attracted significant global interest, the primary question remains whether this meeting will reveal any insights into how these nations intend to fortify their security collaboration or announce the timing of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s anticipated trip to Pyongyang. This visit would be a reciprocal gesture following North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s visit to Russia’s Far East a month earlier.
During Kim’s visit to Russia, he met with President Putin at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a crucial domestic space launch center in Russia, and also inspected several key Russian weapons manufacturing facilities. This led to speculation that Kim might be seeking advanced Russian technology to modernize his nuclear arsenal in exchange for supplying conventional arms to replenish Russia’s depleted weaponry inventory.
“At the Vostochny Cosmodrome on September 13, after the historic summit between President Putin and Chairman of State Affairs Kim Jong Un, we can confidently say that the relations have reached a qualitatively new strategic level,” Lavrov remarked at the commencement of his meeting with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Sun Hui on Thursday, as reported by Russia’s state-run Interfax news agency.
Details of the meeting were not immediately disclosed by either country. However, Lavrov had previously stated that his visit was intended to discuss the implementation of the undisclosed agreements reached during the September summit between Putin and Kim.
Lavrov praises North Korea
During a dinner banquet held in his honour, Lavrov praised North Korea for its “unwavering and principled support” for Russia’s actions in Ukraine and its decision to recognize the independence of Russian-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine, as per Russia’s Foreign Ministry.
He highlighted that while many countries around the world share similar viewpoints, only a select few, like North Korea, explicitly declare their solidarity with Russia.
According to North Korea’s state media, Lavrov also lauded Pyongyang for remaining unfazed by the pressures exerted by the U.S. and the West and expressed Russia’s full support for Kim’s efforts to safeguard the security and economic interests of North Korea.
At the dinner banquet, Choe Sun Hui emphasized that Pyongyang and Moscow were forging an “unbreakable comradely relationship” based on the “strategic” decisions and leadership of Kim and Putin, as reported by North Korea’s state media.
The White House claims that North Korea had delivered over 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Russia. It released images showing these containers being loaded onto a Russian-flagged ship before being transported via train to southwestern Russia. These shipments occurred between September 7 and October 1, moving between Najin, North Korea, and Dunay, Russia.
Accusations against North Korea
The accusations against North Korea aren’t new; the U.S. had been alleging that North Korea had provided ammunition, artillery shells, and rockets to Russia, likely copies of Soviet-era munitions since last year. North Korea consistently denied these allegations, but South Korean officials claimed that North Korean weapons had already been used in Ukraine.
This recent flurry of diplomatic activity between Moscow and Pyongyang underscores the alignment of their interests in the face of their respective, intensifying confrontations with the United States. In a previous visit by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to North Korea in July, Kim showcased an arms exhibition and a military parade, featuring some of North Korea’s most advanced and powerful weaponry. These developments underscore the complex geopolitical landscape in the region and its global implications.
