North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has arrived in Russia for talks with President Vladimir Putin, a situation that has the Biden administration and its ally in South Korea fuming but powerless to prevent.
North Korean state media and South Korean defence officials both confirmed that Kim crossed into Russia by train yesterday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow Kim and Putin will meet in the Russian Far East, with both one-on-one and delegation-to-delegation talks slated, as well as a dinner. North Korean press photos of the reclusive North Korean leader’s delegation on the train show that it includes his foreign minister and senior military officials.
Putin is currently hosting a regular event in Vladivostok, the Eastern Economic Forum, designed to induce investment in the vast, underdeveloped spaces of the Russian Far East. In that endeavour, cheap and plentiful North Korean labour could feasibly play a role. But Kim has never attended an international forum, and there is speculation in Seoul that the bilateral meeting will take place not at the forum site but in the city of Ussuriysk, some 50 miles north of Vladivostok.
Analysts said the two men will likely discuss an aid-for-arms swap: Pyongyang could supply artillery ammunition, tactical rockets and anti-tank munitions for Russia’s strapped forces fighting in Ukraine in return for food aid, energy aid, and/or assistance with such high-tech items as nuclear propulsion systems for submarines and satellites.
South Korean and U.S figures are demanding — in vain, so far — that Russia and North Korea cease and desist: White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre warned that any arms deal between North Korea and Russia “would directly violate a number of U.N. Security Council resolutions” and that the U.S. will expose and sanction individuals and entities working to facilitate deals.
Source: thenation
