2023-09-16 04:29:53
– Kim Jong-un welcomed with great fanfare in Vladivostok
After his meeting with Vladimir Putin this week, Kim Jong-un was welcomed by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Vladivostok this Saturday.
Published today at 6:29 a.m.
Arriving in Russia on Tuesday, Kim Jong-un invited Vladimir Putin to visit North Korea soon.
AFP
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrived in Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East on Saturday, where he was welcomed by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, state news agency Tass said.
Kim Jong-un, who is making his first foreign trip to Russia since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, arrived at Knevichi airport in Vladivostok from Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where he visited aircraft factories on Friday, Tass said. On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Kim Jong-un would attend a “demonstration” of the Russian Pacific Fleet in Vladivostok.
Meeting Wednesday
In this large city on the borders of Russia, located near the Chinese and North Korean borders, Kim Jong-un must also “visit the Far Eastern Federal University and certain facilities of the Russian Academy of Sciences, including the laboratories work on marine biology,” Vladimir Putin detailed on Russian television.
The Russian president and the North Korean leader met Wednesday at the Vostochny cosmodrome, nearly 8,000 kilometers east of Moscow. Arriving in Russia on Tuesday, Kim Jong-un invited Vladimir Putin to visit North Korea soon, but no agreement has been signed between the two countries, according to Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitri Peskov.
Westerners suspect Moscow of wanting to buy weapons from Pyongyang for the conflict in Ukraine. North Korea, for its part, is suspected of wanting to acquire technologies for its nuclear and missile programs.
Rifle exchanges
During their meeting the two leaders mutually offered each other a rifle, gifts seen as symbolic given Western fears. The two men displayed their closeness, Kim Jong-un ensuring that rapprochement with Moscow was an “absolute priority” of foreign policy, while Vladimir Putin praised the “strengthening” of their cooperation.
The Russian head of state notably mentioned “prospects” of military cooperation despite international sanctions targeting Pyongyang because of its nuclear and missile development programs. Washington had expressed its “concern” about the possible purchase of North Korean munitions, and Seoul had “strongly warned” against any transaction of this type.
After turning to Iran to deliver hundreds of explosive drones, Russia could find useful resources in Pyongyang, which has large stockpiles of Soviet equipment and mass produces conventional weapons.
North Korean cosmonaut
The 122 mm caliber rockets intended for BM-21 “Grad” multiple launch rocket launchers (MLRS) from the USSR era, which equip Russian forces in Ukraine and are in the North Korean arsenal, are particularly susceptible to interest Russia. In exchange, Pyongyang could be provided with Russian oil and food goods, and even access to space technologies.
Moscow has raised possible aid in the manufacture of satellites, after the failure of two recent attempts by North Korea to place a military spy satellite in orbit, but has also proposed sending a North Korean cosmonaut into space, Russian news agencies wrote, which would be a first for this country.
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