Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu accompanied North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday to a defense exhibition displaying the regime’s banned ballistic missiles as the two countries pledged to boost ties of cooperation, they said Thursday. North Korean state media.
Shoigu and a Chinese delegation led by a Communist Party politburo member arrived in North Korea this week to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, celebrated in North Korea as “Victory Day.”
The nuclear-capable missiles were banned under UN Security Council resolutions adopted with the support of Russia and China, but this week they provided a striking backdrop for a show of solidarity by three countries united by their rivalry with the US and a resurgence of what some analysts see as their Cold War-era coalition.
Shoigu’s visit was the first by a Russian defense minister to North Korea since the fall of the Soviet Union. For North Korea, the arrival of the Russian and Chinese delegations marks its first grand opening to the world since the covid-19 pandemic.
Shoigu handed Kim a letter from Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korean media reported. For his part, Kim thanked Putin for sending the military delegation and said the visit had deepened “strategic and traditional” relations between North Korea and Russia.
“(Kim) expressed his views on the issues of mutual interest in the struggle to safeguard the sovereignty, development and interests of the two countries from the arbitrary and despotic practices of the imperialists and to achieve international justice and peace. “North Korean media said.
The official North Korean news agency, KCNA, did not refer to the war in Ukraine, but reported that North Korean Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam said North Korea fully supported Russia’s “fight for justice” and the protection of their sovereignty.
Photos released by state media show Kim and his guests at a display of some of the North’s ballistic missiles mounted on multi-axis transporter shuttles. Another image shows what analysts said appeared to be a new drone.
Some analysts argue that Shoigu’s visit to North Korea’s missiles suggests Russia’s acceptance of the North’s nuclear program. “We have come a long way since North Korea avoided displaying its nuclear capabilities when high-ranking foreign dignitaries from Russia and China were in town,” said Ankit Panda of the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Shoigu’s visit and his willingness to be photographed with Kim during the course of this tour is evidence that Moscow is accommodating with the ongoing nuclear modernization in North Korea,” he added.
Kim also met with Chinese Communist Party Politburo member Li Hongzhong for talks and received a letter from Chinese President Xi Jinping, North Korean media reported.
The visit by Li’s delegation showed Xi’s commitment to “attaching great importance to the friendship between the DPRK and China,” Kim was quoted as saying, referring to the North as the initial of its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic. from Korea.
State media photos showed Kim during a grand performance flanked by Shoigu and Li, against a backdrop that included a slogan used by the Chinese military during the Korean War vowing to “resist the American aggressors.”
The Russian visit raises the possibility of more open support for North Korea, especially with Russia cut off by the West over the invasion of Ukraine, analysts say.
Artyom Lukin, a professor at Russia’s Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, said the simultaneous visit to Pyongyang by top officials from Moscow and Beijing is another sign of a revival of the Russian-Chinese-North Korean coalition that originally existed in late the 1940s and 1950s, although it is now likely to be run from Peking rather than Moscow.
Shoigu’s appearance at the military exhibition displaying ICBMs is a “highly ambivalent gesture” given that Russia remains formally committed to United Nations Security Council resolutions banning North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. , said.
“It may mean that current geopolitical circumstances are beginning to erode Russia’s longstanding interest in preserving the global non-proliferation regime,” Lukin added.
Last year, North Korea passed an expansive new nuclear law declaring its nuclear weapons statehood “irreversible.”
This July, he threatened nuclear retaliation for a US show of force, saying the deployment of strategic military assets near the Korean Peninsula could meet the criteria for the use of nuclear weapons.
South Korea’s foreign ministry said Russia’s official position had been to oppose North Korea’s nuclear program and said it hoped Shoigu’s visit would help the North return to dialogue.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Russia’s overtures to North Korea come at a time when the Kremlin is having trouble acquiring weapons. “It’s no secret… Mr. Putin is reaching out to other countries for help and support to fight his war in Ukraine. And that includes, we know, some extension to the DPRK,” he said.
North Korea has backed the Kremlin in its war with Ukraine and has sent weapons, including infantry rockets and missiles, in support of Russia’s war, the White House said. North Korea and Russia deny conducting arms deals.
