Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s war chief arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday evening and was greeted by senior North Korean officials including Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam.
Dictator Kim Jong-un rolled out the red carpet for Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu this week, with some fearing his visit will give Russia access to the highly powerful weapon arsenal that North Korea possesses.
The visits suggest North Korea is opening up after years of shuttered borders in the wake of the pandemic and is eager to showcase its partnerships with authoritarian neighbours in the face of deepening nuclear tensions with Washington, Seoul and Tokyo.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war chief arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday evening and was greeted by senior North Korean officials including Defence Minister Kang Sun Nam.
War mastermind Shoigu saluted soldiers as he disembarked from the plane to a red banner emblazoned with the words: ‘Welcome, Comrade Defence Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Shoigu!’ in both Korean and Russian.
Shoigu will be joined by a Chinese delegation today and they will attend Pyongyang’s celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, marked typically by vast military parades.
Russia said the delegation’s visit will help strengthen relations and mark ‘an important stage’ in the development of bilateral cooperation.
The United States has accused North Korea of providing weapons to Russia during the war in Ukraine, including an arms delivery of infantry rockets and missiles to the Kremlin-backed Wagner mercenary group in November 2022.
Pyongyang and Moscow have denied those claims, but the Moscow Times reported that Moscow is using North Korean weapons to shore up deficits in Ukraine in exchange for help with Jong-Un’s nuclear programme.
Park Won-gon, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said the fact that Russia’s defence minister flew to Pyongyang while his country was at war is ‘very significant.’
Some experts say North Korea might ramp up its weapons tests around the anniversary of the armistice on Thursday.
Since the start of 2022, North Korea has test-fired around 100 missiles as Kim exploits the distraction created by Russia’s war on Ukraine to accelerate the expansion of the nuclear-capable weapons he sees as his strongest guarantee of survival.
North Korea has also been aligning with Russia over the war in Ukraine, insisting that the ‘hegemonic policy’ of the U.S.-led West has forced Russia to take military action to protect its security interests.
When asked whether Washington had any concerns about China and Russia showing support for North Korea with the visits, Vedant Patel, deputy spokesperson at the State Department, called for Beijing and Moscow to play a more constructive role in defusing tensions and bringing Pyongyang back to dialogue.
