Before an anticipated meeting with President Vladimir Putin that has raised fears about a potential arms sale for Moscow’s war in Ukraine, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in Russia on Tuesday with his senior military officers overseeing his nuclear-capable weapons and munitions factories.
Kim reportedly boarded his private train on Sunday afternoon with unnamed representatives of the military, government, and ruling party of North Korea, according to the country’s official Korean Central News Agency.
Without going into further detail regarding how the military came to its conclusion, Jeon Ha Gyu, spokesperson for South Korea’s defense ministry, stated at a briefing that the train crossed into Russia sometime early on Tuesday.
Likely officials on Kim Jong Un’s delegation
Image source: Associated Press News
Choe Sun Hui, Kim’s foreign minister, and Marshals Ri Pyong Chol and Pak Jong Chon, the Korean People’s Army, are most likely among his delegation.
Other figures seen in images published by North Korean state media may provide a signal as to what Kim would ask of Putin and what he might be willing to offer.
These officials include Pak Thae Song, the head of North Korea’s committee for space science and technology, and Navy Adm. Kim Myong Sik, who are associated with the country’s ambitions to obtain spy satellites and ballistic missile submarines with nuclear warheads. Experts claim that North Korea would struggle to develop such capabilities without outside assistance, though it is unclear whether Russia would transfer such sensitive technologies.
According to the South Korean Unification Ministry, which examined the North Korean images, Kim Jong Un is also reportedly bringing Jo Chun Ryong, a ruling party official in charge of munitions policies who had accompanied the leader on recent visits to factories making artillery shells and missiles.
According to commentators, North Korea may have tens of millions of artillery shells and rockets built to Soviet specifications that may offer the Russian force in Ukraine a significant advantage.
Possible meeting location between Putin & Kim
Putin arrived in Vladivostok, in eastern Russia, on Monday to take part in an international gathering that lasts through Wednesday. This city is a potential location for Kim and Putin’s meeting. In the city located about 425 miles (680 kilometers) north of Pyongyang, Putin and Kim first met in 2019. Putin and Kim will meet after the Vladivostok forum, according to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, but the reports did not include a time or location.
For more than three years following the COVID-19 epidemic, when North Korea strictly tightened border controls, Kim Jong Un is traveling abroad for the first time.
Image source: Associated Press News
A station on the North Korean side of a border river was home to a green train with yellow trim that Associated Press reporters recognized as one Kim had taken on prior international visits.
Last week, information that North Korea and Russia were planning a summit between their leaders was made public by U.S. authorities.
Image source: Associated Press News
U.S. officials said that in order to defuse a Ukrainian counteroffensive and demonstrate his ability to wage a protracted war of attrition, Putin may concentrate on obtaining additional shipments of North Korean artillery and other weapons to replenish his depleting stockpiles. In spite of their massive deployments of cutting-edge weaponry to Ukraine over the past 17 months, this may potentially increase pressure on the U.S. and its allies to explore dialogue.
Using the acronym for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, White House National Security Council spokesman Adrienne Watson stated that ““Arms discussions between Russia and the DPRK are expected to continue during Kim Jong Un’s trip to Russia, we urge the DPRK to abide by the public commitments that Pyongyang has made to not provide or sell arms to Russia.”
What is Kim Jong Un getting in exchange?
Analysts suggest that in return, Kim could ask for much-needed oil and food assistance as well as cutting-edge weapons systems, such as those connected to intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear-capable ballistic missile submarines, and military reconnaissance satellites.
The threat presented by Kim’s expanding stock of nuclear weapons and missiles intended to strike the United States, South Korea, and Japan is feared to grow as a result of prospective Russian technical transfers.
Diplomatic ties strengthening between Kim and Putin
Since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the two countries have been becoming closer after decades of tumultuous, hot-and-cold ties. As Kim attempts to break out of diplomatic isolation and have North Korea be part of a united front against Washington, Putin’s desire for assistance in the fight and Kim’s efforts to increase the visibility of his alliances with longtime allies Moscow and Beijing have been the driving forces behind the relationship.
Since last year, the United States has accused North Korea of supplying Russia with weapons, including artillery shells that were delivered to the Wagner mercenary group in Russia. Officials from North Korea and Russia both refuted these assertions.
But after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu paid a rare visit to North Korea in July and was invited to an arms fair and a sizable military parade in the capital where Kim displayed ICBMs intended to strike the U.S. mainland, rumors about the two nations’ military collaboration increased.
After that visit, Kim went on a tour of North Korea’s armament industries, stopping by a factory that makes artillery systems where he pushed employees to hasten the creation and mass manufacturing of new types of ammunition. According to experts, Kim’s excursions to the factories probably had the dual purposes of urging North Korea to modernize its military equipment and inspecting artillery and other supplies that may be transferred to Russia.
