Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit North Korea this week for the first time in 24 years, the two countries said, a rare trip that highlights Moscow’s burgeoning partnership with the nuclear-armed nation.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un extended an invitation to Putin when he visited the Russian Far East in September last year. Putin last visited Pyongyang in July 2000.
“At the invitation of North Korean State Councilor Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin will pay a goodwill state visit to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on June 18-19,” the Kremlin said.
North Korea’s state news agency KCNA also announced the visit but gave no further details.
The Kremlin said Putin will visit Vietnam from June 19 to 20. Both visits were expected, but dates had not previously been announced.
Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Russia has spared no effort to promote its revival of relations with North Korea, alarming the United States and its European and Asian allies.
Washington says North Korea has provided weapons to Russia to help it fight in Ukraine, but Pyongyang has repeatedly denied this.
For Putin, who said Russia is locked in an existential struggle with the West over Ukraine, courting Kim could allow him to attack Washington and its Asian allies.
United Nations monitors have concluded that at least one ballistic missile Russia fired at a Ukrainian city in January was made by North Korea. Ukrainian officials say they have counted about 50 such missiles delivered to Russia by North Korea.
“The list of countries willing to welcome Putin is shorter than ever, but for Kim Jong Un, this visit is a victory,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Seoul’s Ewha University.
“This summit not only enhances North Korea’s standing among countries opposed to the U.S.-led international order, but also helps strengthen Kim Jong Un’s domestic legitimacy.”
South Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong-kyun discussed Putin’s plans to visit North Korea in an emergency phone call with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell on Friday, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the visit should not lead to more military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow in violation of U.N. resolutions.
Russia says it will cooperate and develop relations with North Korea in the way it chooses and that no country will tell it what to do, least of all the United States.
Putin and Kim Jong Un
The United Nations has imposed a number of sanctions since Pyongyang conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, but experts say Pyongyang continues to develop nuclear weapons and produce nuclear separatist materials.
Russia says world powers need to adopt a new approach towards North Korea and accuses the United States and its allies of trying to “stifle” the reclusive country.
Jenny Tang of Washington’s 38 North Project said Russia’s engagement with North Korea was part of an effort to build an alternative to a U.S.-led world order.
“There is reason to believe that Russia sees North Korea’s value as a military partner in the war against the West and that does incentivize them to do more than just arms deals to supplement Russia’s war effort in Ukraine,” she said.
For North Korea, Tong added, its relationship with Russia has brought support from the United Nations Security Council and “immediate results” in economic, military and agricultural cooperation and trade, which the two countries have achieved since the 1990s. Never before.
inflection point?
Russia has vetoed the annual update of a panel of experts that oversees U.N. sanctions imposed on North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Russia’s veto was seen as a turning point in the international sanctions system against North Korea, which was created in 1948 with the support of the Soviet Union and South Korea with the support of the United States.
Kim Jong-un’s grandfather and North Korea’s founder, Kim Il-sung, came to power with the support of Moscow to compete with the U.S.-backed South Korea.
However, the chaos of the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991 ended this support. After succeeding Boris Yelchin in 1999, Putin visited Pyongyang in July 2000 to meet with Kim Jong Un’s father, Kim Jong Il.
Relations between the two countries have cooled after North Korea’s nuclear test, but for Kim Jong Un, Russia is a major power ally that can help balance Pyongyang’s dependence on China.
Kim Jong Un traveled to Russia by train in 2019 and again last year, when Putin and the North Korean leader toasted each other with Russian wine.
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