(Moscow) North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrived in Vladivostok, in the Russian Far East, on Saturday, where he was welcomed by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, the Moscow news agency said. Tass State.
Mr. Kim, who is making his first foreign trip to Russia since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, arrived at Knevichi Airport in Vladivostok from Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where he visited aircraft factories on Friday, Tass said.
On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Kim Jong-un would attend a “demonstration” of the Russian Pacific Fleet in Vladivostok.
In this large city on the borders of Russia, located near the Chinese and North Korean borders, Kim Jong-un must also “visit the Far Eastern Federal University and certain facilities of the Russian Academy of Sciences, including the laboratories work on marine biology,” Mr. Putin detailed on Russian television.
The Russian president and the North Korean leader met Wednesday at the Vostochny cosmodrome, nearly 8,000 kilometers east of Moscow.
Arriving in Russia on Tuesday, Mr. Kim invited Mr. Putin to visit North Korea soon, but no agreement has been signed between the two countries, according to Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
Westerners suspect Moscow of wanting to buy weapons from Pyongyang for the conflict in Ukraine. North Korea, for its part, is suspected of wanting to acquire technologies for its nuclear and missile programs.
Rifle exchanges
During their meeting, the two leaders mutually offered each other a rifle, gifts seen as symbolic given Western fears.
The two men displayed their closeness, Kim Jong-un ensuring that rapprochement with Moscow was an “absolute priority” of foreign policy, while Mr. Putin praised the “strengthening” of their cooperation.
The Russian head of state notably mentioned “prospects” of military cooperation despite international sanctions targeting Pyongyang because of its nuclear and missile development programs.
Washington had expressed “concern” about the possible purchase of North Korean munitions, and Seoul had “firmly warned” against any transaction of this type.
After turning to Iran to deliver hundreds of explosive drones, Russia could find useful resources in Pyongyang, which has large stockpiles of Soviet equipment and mass produces conventional weapons.
The 122 mm caliber rockets intended for the BM-21 “Grad” multiple launch rockets (MLRS) from the USSR era, which equip Russian forces in Ukraine and appear in the North Korean arsenal, are particularly susceptible to interest Russia.
In exchange, Pyongyang could be provided with Russian oil and food goods, and even access to space technologies.
Moscow has raised possible aid in the manufacture of satellites, after the failure of two recent attempts by North Korea to place a military spy satellite in orbit, but has also proposed sending a North Korean cosmonaut into space, Russian news agencies wrote, which would be a first for this country.