Evocative gifts: Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un gave each other a rifle during the North Korean leader’s current visit to Russia, the Kremlin said on Thursday, confirming that the Russian president had agreed to visit Pyongyang.
These gifts appear to be highly symbolic, at a time when the United States suspects Russia of wanting to buy weapons from Pyongyang to support its assault in Ukraine.
For the moment, however, nothing has been officially communicated concerning a possible agreement for the delivery of equipment or military collaboration between the two isolated regimes targeted by international sanctions.
“ [M. Poutine] gave Kim a glove from a space suit, which has traveled to space several times. He has [aussi] offered Kim a rifle of Russian production of the highest quality. In return, he received a rifle made in North Korea,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.
According to the North Korean press agency, Kim Jong-un on Wednesday invited his Russian counterpart to visit North Korea “whenever it suits him”.
On Thursday, Dmitri Peskov confirmed that Vladimir Putin had accepted this invitation “with pleasure”. The North Korean leader’s visit to Russia “continues for a few more days,” Peskov added, without giving further details on the program.
The day before, Vladimir Putin had announced that Kim was to go to Komsomolsk-on-Amur, in the Russian Far East, to visit factories producing “civil and military” aeronautical equipment.
He must then attend, in Vladivostok, where he went in 2019, a military “demonstration” of the Russian Pacific Fleet, declared Vladimir Putin.
North Korean cosmonaut
On Wednesday, during his first trip abroad since the COVID pandemic, Kim Jong-un met Vladimir Putin at the Russian Vostochny cosmodrome for a tour of the premises and official discussions lasting more than two hours.
Moscow then offered Pyongyang to send a North Korean cosmonaut into space, according to Russian news agencies. This would be a first for a North Korean, as the country wants to develop its space programs.
Also on Wednesday, Kim Jong-un assured Mr. Putin that Moscow would achieve a “great victory” over its enemies and said rapprochement with Russia would be the “top priority” of North Korean foreign policy.
The Russian president, for his part, praised the “future strengthening of cooperation” with Pyongyang, evoking “prospects” of military cooperation despite international sanctions targeting North Korea due to its nuclear programs and its missiles in development.
The White House said Thursday that its national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, had discussed the Putin-Kim meeting with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts.
“They stressed that any arms export from North Korea to Russia would be a direct violation of several United Nations Security Council resolutions, including resolutions that Russia itself pushed through,” detailed a statement.
“Destabilization in the region”
“This summit reflects an immense change in geopolitics in Northeast Asia,” said Kim Jong-dae, former South Korean deputy and visiting scholar at the Yonsei Institute of North Korean Studies.
A stronger alliance between Pyongyang, Moscow and Beijing could lead to “destabilization in the region”, and munitions supplied by Pyongyang would have a major impact on the conflict in Ukraine, he said.
“I think Russia has already tested North Korean shells on the battlefield and is now ready to expand their use. Neither the United States nor South Korea have understood the consequences of such an arms sale between Russia and the North,” Kim Jong-dae said.
I believe that Russia has already tested North Korean shells on the battlefields and is now ready to expand their use.
Washington had expressed “concern,” saying Russia was interested in purchasing North Korean munitions to support its assault in Ukraine, which has been going on for more than a year and a half.
In Vostochny, Mr. Putin raised the possibility of Russia helping Pyongyang build satellites, after North Korea recently failed twice to put a military spy satellite into orbit.
Vladimir Putin was the first Russian head of state to visit North Korea, in 2000. It was then led by Kim Jong-il, father of the current leader. The duma then ratified a friendship treaty between the two countries.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited Pyongyang in July to mark the anniversary of the end of the fighting between the two Koreas (1950-1953). The head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, is expected there in October, according to the Kremlin.