Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in North Korea for a two-day state visit. The Kremlin chief was received at the airport by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the Russian news agency Interfax reported on Tuesday night. According to observers, the two-day visit will also focus on further arms deliveries from Pyongyang for Moscow’s war against Ukraine.
After Kim met Putin at Pyongyang airport, they both shook hands and hugged. They then rode in the same limousine and entered Putin’s hotel together. Before his visit, the Russian president had already assured North Korea in a letter that he would deepen trade and security relations with the isolated and nuclear-armed state and support it against the USA.
The meeting between the two heads of state testifies to the “invincibility and durability” of the friendship and unity between North Korea and Russia, the KCNA reported on Wednesday.
The relations have developed into a “strong strategic fortress” for maintaining international justice, peace and security, as well as an engine for the accelerated construction of a new multipolar world, it said.
The last time Putin was in North Korea was in 2000, when he was received by Kim’s father, Kim Il Sung. After a long break, relations have recently been significantly improved – not least because of the war. Putin received Kim in Russia’s Far East last autumn.
According to US sources, the agreement was reached to supply North Korean missiles and artillery ammunition to Russia, which Moscow uses in the war. In return, it is also suspected that key military technologies will be handed over to Pyongyang, which is internationally sanctioned because of its nuclear program. Both countries have denied such cooperation.
Moscow appreciates North Korea’s “steadfast support” for “Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine” and solidarity on important international issues, Putin wrote in advance in an article for the North Korean newspaper “Rodong Sinmun”. Russia began its war of aggression against Ukraine, which Moscow describes as a “special military operation,” more than two years ago.
The US government is therefore very concerned about Putin’s visit to North Korea. “The deepening cooperation between Russia and North Korea is something that should worry everyone who is interested in maintaining peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, but also in supporting the Ukrainian people who continue to fight against Russian aggression,” said US Department of Defense spokesman Pat Ryder in Washington.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre made similar comments, saying that the supply of weapons from North Korea had helped Russia wage its brutal war in Ukraine.
With regard to the visit, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg made it clear how important he considers it to expand cooperation between the Atlantic military alliance and partners in the Indo-Pacific region.
Putin’s visit to North Korea shows and confirms Russia’s very close ties with authoritarian states such as North Korea, but also China and Iran, Stoltenberg said at a press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington. These states supported and fueled Russia’s war aggression against Ukraine. “This also shows that our security is not regional. It is global.”
There is also concern that Russia is providing technology for these countries’ missile and nuclear programs. This is another reason why cooperation with partners in the Indo-Pacific region will be further strengthened at the NATO summit in Washington in July, Stoltenberg stressed.
