SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un vowed “full and unconditional support” for Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Wednesday as the two leaders isolated from the West held a summit in which the U.S. warned that a deal on the Supply of ammunition could lead to Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
The meeting, which lasted more than four hours at the Russian spaceport in the Far East, underscored how the two countries’ interests align: Putin is believed to be seeking one of the few things that impoverished North Korea has in abundance – stockpiles of aging munitions and missiles for Soviet-era weapons.
Such a request would represent a role reversal from the 1950-53 Korean War, when Moscow supplied weapons to support Pyongyang’s invasion of South Korea, and in subsequent decades when the Soviet Union supported North Korea.
The decision to meet at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia’s main launch center on its own soil, suggests that Kim is seeking Russian help in developing military reconnaissance satellites, which he describes as crucial to increasing the threat from his nuclear-capable missiles. North Korea has repeatedly failed to place its first military spy satellite into orbit.
Putin met Kim’s limousine, brought from Pyongyang in the North Korean leader’s armored train, at the launch site and greeted his guest with a handshake that lasted about 40 seconds. Putin spoke of the Soviet Union’s war support for North Korea and said the talks would cover economic cooperation, humanitarian issues and the “situation in the region.”
Kim, in turn, assured Moscow of continued support, apparently referring to the war in Ukraine.
“Russia is currently waging a just struggle against hegemonic forces to defend its sovereign rights, security and interests,” he said. “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has always expressed its full and unconditional support for all measures taken by the Russian government, and I take this opportunity to reiterate that we are always with you on the anti-imperialist front and on the independence front Russia will stand.” ”
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (front right) and Russian Natural Resources Minister Alexander Kozlov (front left) walk to a train station building at Khasan Station in Russia on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023. Korea Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
Analysts say North Korea may have tens of millions of obsolete Soviet-style artillery shells and rockets that could bolster Russian forces in Ukraine.
Washington has accused North Korea of supplying Russia with weapons, including by selling artillery shells to the Russian mercenary group Wagner. Russian and North Korean officials deny such claims.
But either buying weapons from North Korea or supplying missile technology to North Korea would violate international sanctions that Russia has previously supported.
That would reduce Russia’s isolation in the 18 months after the invasion of Ukraine, which brought increasing sanctions, cut off Moscow’s economy from global markets and narrowed the circle of world leaders willing to meet with Putin , both underlining and deepening. Wednesday’s summit came three weeks after a suspicious plane crash that killed Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, who launched a brief rebellion challenging Putin in June. The Kremlin denied being behind the crash.
This Tuesday. Sept. 12, 2023, A photo provided by the North Korean government shows North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un (center) attends a welcoming ceremony after crossing the border with Russia in Khasan, about 127 km (79 miles) south of Vladivostok, has crossed. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
Moscow’s priority is success in Ukraine, “and it would do just about anything to achieve that,” said James Nixey, director of the Russia and Eurasia program at Chatham House, a London-based think tank.
“Russia may want to prepare for a prolonged war, but it cannot provide the necessary industrial capacity,” he said, adding that “any agreement with Kim would ensure that immediate needs are met and any gaps are filled.” North Koreans, as Russia increases its medium- to longer-term arms production.”
In return, Pyongyang is expected to receive food and missile technology from Moscow, “a relatively easy gift” for the Kremlin, Nixey said.
As the leaders toured a Soyuz-2 rocket launch facility, Kim peppered a Russian space official with questions.
Kim and Putin met together with their delegations and later also in individual discussions, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. After the talks, there was an official lunch for Kim, Russian state media reported.
Putin told Russian state television that Kim would visit two other cities in the Far East on his own after the summit and fly to Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where he would tour an aircraft factory, and then fly to Vladivostok to tour Russia’s Pacific Fleet. a university and other institutions.
Russia and North Korea have “many interesting projects” in areas such as transportation and agriculture, he said. Moscow provides humanitarian aid to its neighbor, but there are also opportunities to “work on equal terms,” Putin added.
However, he sidestepped the question of military cooperation, saying only that Russia was abiding by sanctions that ban the procurement of weapons from Pyongyang. “There are certain restrictions, Russia follows all of them. There are things we can talk about, we discuss, we think. Russia is a self-sufficient country, but there are things we can draw attention to, we are discussing them,” he said.
James O’Brien, head of the State Department’s Office of Sanctions Coordination, said Russia was “looking to the bottom of the barrel for help because it is struggling to maintain its military.”
“Russia is now openly engaging with a country that has been sanctioned by the United Nations. And that is very problematic for Russia’s global position,” he told The Associated Press.
A deal between the countries would violate existing sanctions, he said, and would trigger a U.S. attempt to identify the people and the financial mechanisms used to “at least limit their ability to be effective.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a news conference that “any form of cooperation between a country and North Korea must respect the sanctions regime imposed by the Security Council.”
Wednesday’s meeting came hours after North Korea fired two ballistic missiles toward the sea, extending a highly provocative series of tests since 2022 as Kim used the distraction caused by the war in Ukraine to speed up his weapons development.
South Korea’s chief of staff did not say how far the missiles flew. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said they landed in waters outside the country’s exclusive economic zones and there were no reports of damage.
Official photos showed Kim was accompanied by Pak Thae Song, chairman of North Korea’s Space Science and Technology Committee, and Admiral Kim Myong Sik, who the Association of South Korea said was leading efforts to procure spy satellites and nuclear-capable ballistic missile submarines be associated with the Ministry.
According to South Korea, Kim also brought with him Jo Chun Ryong, who is in charge of ammunition policy and who toured factories producing artillery shells and rockets with him.
Despite the frequency of North Korean missile launches, Wednesday’s launches were a surprise. South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which oversees inter-Korean affairs, said it was the first time the North had fired a missile while Kim was abroad.
Kim could have ordered them to show he is in control of military activities even when he is outside the country, said Moon Seong Mook of the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy in Seoul.
Moon, a retired South Korean brigadier general who took part in inter-Korean military talks, said the North could also have intended to express its anger after U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Putin was meeting “an international pariah , to ask him for help in a war”. ”
When asked whether Moscow would help North Korea build satellites, Putin was quoted by Russian media as saying: “That’s why we came here.” The DPRK leader shows great interest in missile technology. They are also trying to develop space,” using the acronym for North Korea’s official name. Asked about military cooperation, Putin said: “We will talk about all issues without haste. There is time.”
Alexander Vorontsov of the Institute of Asian Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences noted what he called the “laconic” official presentation of the summit’s results and was quoted by the Tass news agency as saying: “We can assume that… the “Most of the agreements reached were made.” … remains secret for the time being.”
Speculation about military cooperation increased after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited North Korea in July. Kim then toured his weapons factories, the aim of which experts said was to promote the modernization of North Korea’s weapons and check artillery and other supplies for export to Russia.
At their lunch, which reportedly included regional delicacies such as Kamchatka shrimp dumplings and taiga cranberries with pine nuts, Kim said he and Putin agreed to deepen their “strategic and tactical cooperation.”
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Litvinova reported from Tallinn, Estonia. Associated Press journalists Haruka Nuga and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo; Emma Burrows in London, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Jim Heintz in Tallinn contributed.