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SEOUL – Russian President Vladimir Putin greeted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with smiles and warm words at the Vostochny Cosmodrome on Wednesday, taking him on a tour of the launch complex at the start of their first meeting in four years.
The meeting, the first meeting between the two leaders since 2019, appears designed to show that the two leaders will support each other, a repudiation of U.S.-led efforts to blast Putin over his Invading Ukraine and isolating Kim because of his pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
When the two leaders met, they showed a friendly mood.
Putin greeted Kim as he stepped out of a black car at the cosmodrome in the far eastern Amur region, and the two men shook hands and exchanged welcome greetings, according to a video released by the Kremlin on its Telegram channel.
“Did you have a good trip?” According to the video, Putin asked Kim. “Thank you for inviting us despite your busy schedule,” Kim replied. The North Korean leader’s sister and closest confidante, Kim Yo Jong, was seen accompanying him.
The Kremlin said the two leaders inspected the cosmodrome’s facilities, including the launch vehicle assembly hall for the Angara and Soyuz-2 space rockets.
Yuri Borisov, the head of Roscosmos, Russia’s state space agency, and the general director of the Center for the Operation of Ground-Based Space Infrastructure, Nikolai Nesterchuk, explained the Russian facilities to Kim through an interpreter.
The unusual choice of location could signal a focus on space technology, a priority for Kim.
North Korea failed in its second attempt to launch a military spy satellite last month and said it would try again in October. The country’s space agency is working to launch the satellite to keep an eye on “enemy” military activity in real time. The South Korean military examined the debris from the first failed launch in May and said the North Korean satellite was not advanced enough to conduct space-based reconnaissance.
Kim and Putin could meet at this spaceport in Russia’s Far East. Why there?
Kim entered Russia on Tuesday morning and was greeted with the fanfare of a military band and a red carpet as he crossed the border into Russia. This marked the reclusive leader’s first international trip since the start of the pandemic.
Kim said his visit was “a clear expression of how much our party and government attach great importance to the strategic importance of relations between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Russia,” Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency reported on Wednesday, using the official acronym for North Korea.
With Kim’s trip, friendship and cooperation between the countries would reach a “fresh, higher level,” the report said.
The leaders are expected to discuss increased mutual support, including possible exchanges of weapons, manpower and food, as Russia runs low in its war with Ukraine and North Korea tries to boost its ailing economy.
Meanwhile, North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile toward the sea off its east coast, the South Korean military said on Wednesday. Japanese media reported it fell outside Japanese waters.
A meeting of Russian and North Korean heads of state and government is planned. Why and why now?
Kim left Pyongyang on Sunday afternoon along with senior government and party officials on his notoriously slow-moving train, state media reported. Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam and Ammunition Industry Department Director Jo Chun Ryong appeared to also be on the train, according to an analysis of state media photos by NK Pro, a Seoul-based monitoring website.
Wearing a black suit, Kim got off his train at 6 a.m. on Tuesday at Khasan train station on the border of the two countries, state media reported.
Oleg Kozhemyako, the governor of Russia’s far eastern region of Primorye, received Kim at the train station on Tuesday, photos show. Russian officials at the welcoming ceremony included Alexander Kozlov, the minister of natural resources and ecology, state media reported.
The expected meeting with Putin will be the first for the two isolated leaders since 2019, when Kim traveled to Vladivostok. This summit took place two months after the collapse of nuclear disarmament negotiations between the United States and North Korea in Hanoi, as Kim sought to hedge his bets in negotiations over his nuclear program.
Kim has rapidly expanded North Korea’s nuclear-capable weapons arsenal since his failed summit with then-U.S. President Donald Trump, even as his pandemic measures constrained the country’s economy.
Kim travels to Russia with a rare negotiating advantage: the weapons Putin wants
Now Kim and Putin want to signal that they are joining forces in their respective disputes with Washington on the basis of common interests.
Washington has accused Moscow of seeking North Korean weapons.
“We remain concerned that North Korea is considering providing any type of munitions or material to Russia in support of its war against Ukraine,” Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder told reporters on Monday.
In an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Vice President Harris said “it would be a big mistake” for the two leaders to negotiate an arms deal.
“I also firmly believe that this will lead to further isolation for both Russia and North Korea,” Harris said.
Min Joo Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.