Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin meet, pledge expanded ‘military technical cooperation’
Joel Gehrke Mike Brest
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Russia intends to expand “military-technical cooperation” with North Korea despite United Nations sanctions on the regime, and dictator Kim Jong Un pledged to help Moscow achieve a “great victory” in the war in Ukraine.
“There are certain restrictions,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday. “Russia complies with all these restrictions, but there are things that we can certainly talk about, discuss, think about, and there are prospects here, too.”
If Putin and his aides paid lip service to the U.N. sanctions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was emphatic that “no additional sanctions will be imposed on North Korea,” putting Russia’s veto power at the U.N. Security Council into North Korean service. Kim, for his part, predicted that their meeting would lead to an “unbreakable relationship of strategic cooperation” between Moscow and Pyongyang, from Ukraine to beyond.
“Russia is currently engaged in a sacred battle to defend its state sovereignty and security in the face of the hegemonic forces that oppose Russia,” Kim said. “We have always supported and will continue to support every decision made by President Putin, as well as the decisions of the Russian Government. I also hope that we will always stand together in fighting imperialism and building a sovereign state.”
Putin, who hosted Kim at a Russian spaceport, signaled that Russia would help North Korea solve the problems that resulted in the failure of two attempts to put a spy satellite into orbit.
“That’s why we came here,” Putin said. “The leader of the DPRK shows great interest in rocket engineering; they are also trying to develop space.”
The highly anticipated meeting comes days after U.S. warnings that Moscow is seeking to procure military support from North Korea for its war in Ukraine. U.S. officials have accused Pyongyang of providing the Russian paramilitary organization the Wagner Group with weapons in late 2022. And the prospect of Russian assistance to North Korea is an alarming one for South Korea and Japan, two keystones of the U.S. alliance network in the Indo-Pacific, whose misgivings were underscored Wednesday by North Korea’s launch of two short-range ballistic missiles amid Kim’s trip to Russia.
“While preparing for additional provocations from North Korea, our military is closely monitoring activities and signs from the country in close coordination with the United States,” the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff told journalists Wednesday.
The U.S. has repeatedly warned any Russian allies against aiding them in the war in Ukraine, North Korea included, and officials have reiterated that sentiment recently.
“Our understanding is that this will focus on arms negotiations,” Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, Pentagon spokesman, said on Tuesday, “and again, we would call on North Korea to meet its previous stated public commitments not to supply weapons to Russia, which will only end up prolonging the unnecessary war in Ukraine.”
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U.S. officials have also argued that Russia’s desire for North Korean military assistance demonstrates desperation on the part of Putin and the Kremlin.
“We will foster mutually advantageous cooperation with North Korea that will not be subject to any illegitimate Western pressure,” Lavrov said.