(Seoul) North Korea said Sunday it has agreed to strengthen strategic and tactical cooperation with Russia to establish a “multipolarized new international order,” as the two countries strive to build a united front in the face of their separate conflicts, intensifying tensions with the United States.
In describing North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui’s meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow last week, the North Korean Foreign Ministry said Putin had also reaffirmed his willingness to visit Pyongyang and said it could take place “at short notice”.
North Korea is actively strengthening ties with Russia, as evidenced by leader Kim Jong-un’s visit to Russia in September for a summit with Putin. Kim is trying to break his diplomatic isolation and strengthen his positions as he faces a deepening nuclear standoff with Washington, Seoul and Tokyo.
In a separate statement Sunday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry condemned the United Nations (UN) Security Council for calling an emergency meeting over the country’s latest missile test, which media reported The State has described it as a new intermediate-range solid-fuel missile equipped with a hypersonic warhead. The ministry maintained that the January 14 test firings were part of the country’s regular activities aimed at improving its defense capabilities and did not pose a threat to its neighbors.
South Korea on Thursday urged the Security Council “to break the silence” on North Korea’s escalating missile tests and threats. Russia and China, both permanent members of the council, have blocked U.S.-led efforts to increase sanctions on North Korea over its recent weapons tests, highlighting a war-driven divide of Russia against Ukraine.
The alignment between Pyongyang and Moscow has sparked international concerns over so-called arms cooperation, in which the North supplies Russia with munitions to help it prolong its fighting in Ukraine, possibly in exchange for aid much-needed economic and military assistance to help modernize Kim’s forces. Pyongyang and Russia have denied accusations from Washington and Seoul regarding North Korean arms transfers to Russia.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry, in comments published by state media, said Mme Choe and Russian officials expressed during their meetings “the firm desire to further strengthen strategic and tactical cooperation to defend the fundamental interests of the two countries and establish a new multipolarized international order.”
Russia expressed its “deep thanks” to North Korea for its “full support” in its war against Ukraine, the North Korean ministry said. Mme Choe and Russian officials have expressed “serious concerns” about growing U.S. military cooperation with its Asian allies, which they accuse of escalating tensions in the region and threatening the sovereignty and security interests of North Korea.
Tensions at their highest level
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest level in years, after Kim in recent months used Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a diversion to step up his weapons tests and military protests. The United States, South Korea and Japan have responded by stepping up their combined military exercises, which Kim presents as invasion rehearsals, and refining their deterrence plans built around U.S. nuclear assets.
In the latest exchange of retaliation, North Korea said Friday it had conducted a test of a suspected nuclear-capable underwater attack drone in response to a combined naval exercise by the United States, South Korea and of Japan last week, as it continued its efforts to blame its rivals for tensions in the region.
M’s visitme Choe in Moscow comes as Kim continues to use domestic political events to make provocative threats of nuclear conflict.
At the Pyongyang parliament last week, Kim said North Korea was abandoning its long-held goal of peaceful unification with war-divided rival South Korea and ordered the rewriting of the North’s constitution to consolidate the South as its most hostile foreign adversary. He accused South Korea of acting as a “first-class puppet” of the Americans and reiterated his threat to use its nuclear weapons to wipe out the South if provoked.
Analysts say North Korea may seek to diminish South Korea’s voice in regional nuclear standoff and possibly impose direct relations with Washington as it seeks to cement its status as a weapons state nuclear.