Loading the weather. . . .
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Accompanied by his top military officers who oversee its nuclear-capable weapons and munitions factories, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in Russia on Tuesday, where he is expected to hold a rare meeting with President Vladimir. Putin has raised Western considerations about a possible arms deal for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
North Korea’s official news agency said Kim addressed his private exercise from the capital Pyongyang on Sunday afternoon, and was accompanied by unspecified members of the country’s ruling party, government and military.
Do not miss our news and essential news each and every day in your inbox.
Jeon Ha Gyu, a spokesman for South Korea’s Defense Ministry, told a news conference that the South Korean military believes Kim’s exercise entered Russia early Tuesday. He did not explain how the army received the information.
North Korean state media showed photographs of Kim walking among honor guards and crowds of civilians holding the national flag and flowers, as well as greeting him from his green-and-yellow armored exercise before leaving the station. Kim’s delegation is likely to include his foreign minister, Choe Sun Hui, and senior army officers, adding Korean People’s Army field marshals Ri Pyong Chol and Pak Jong Chon.
A group of senior officials showed up at the station to greet the leader, according to the Korean Central News Agency, which did not say whether the exercise had crossed the border. Citing unnamed Russian regional officials, Japanese TV channel TBS reported that Kim’s exercise crossed the border and reached the border in the town of Khasan.
A report on the Kremlin’s online page on Monday said the stopover was at Putin’s invitation and that he would take a position “in the coming days. “The KCNA said the leaders would meet, without specifying when or where.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin and Kim would lead their delegations in the talks and could also meet “one-on-one if necessary. “He added that Putin would host an official dinner for Kim.
The talks will focus on bilateral relations, Peskov said. “Like any of our neighbors, we feel obliged to expand good mutual relations,” he added.
One conceivable location would be the eastern Russian city of Vladivostok, where Putin arrived on Monday to attend a foreign forum that will last until Wednesday, according to Russian news agency TASS. The city, located about 680 kilometers north of Pyongyang, was also the site of Putin’s meeting. First meeting with Kim in 2019.
The stop would be Kim’s first abroad since the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced North Korea to impose strict border controls for more than three years to protect its failing fitness system. Even though Kim has been more comfortable with planes than his notoriously hostile As a father, he has also used his non-public exercise in past meetings with Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and former U. S. President Donald Trump, reviving a symbol of his family’s dynastic rule.
Associated Press reporters near the North Korea-Russia border saw a green exercise with yellow borders, similar to the one used by Kim, the solitary on previous trips, at a station on the North Korean side of a border river.
The exercise observed back and forth between the station and the technique to the bridge that connects the countries, but had not crossed the bridge until 19. 00 local time (10. 00 GMT).
Citing unnamed South Korean government sources, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported that a meeting between Kim and Putin was imaginable as early as Tuesday.
News firm Yonhap and other media outlets published similar information. South Korea’s presidential office, Defense Ministry and National Intelligence Service did not verify those details.
Last week, the United States released intelligence that North Korea and Russia were holding an assembly between their leaders as they expanded cooperation amid escalating confrontations with the United States.
U. S. officials say Putin could simply get more North Korean artillery materials and other munitions to fill his dwindling stockpile as he seeks to defuse a Ukrainian counteroffensive and prove he is capable of waging a long war of attrition. This could potentially lead to more tension as the United States and its partners continue negotiations as considerations mount about a protracted standoff despite their massive shipments of complex weapons to Ukraine over the past 17 months.
“Arms talks between Russia and the DPRK are expected to continue Kim Jong Un’s vacation in Russia,” White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said, using the abbreviation of North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “The DPRK will abide by Pyongyang’s public commitments not to supply or sell arms to Russia. “
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Washington would adhere closely to the assembly and reminded both countries that “any movement of weapons from North Korea to Russia would be a violation of several UN Security Council resolutions” and that the United States “will hesitate to impose further measures. “”sanctions. “
North Korea most likely has tens of millions of Soviet-designed artillery and rocket shells that could potentially give a massive boost to the Russian military, analysts say.
In return, Kim could simply seek energy and food aid, as well as complex weapons technologies, adding those similar to intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear-capable missile submarines and army reconnaissance satellites, analysts said.
Some fear that imaginable transfers of Russian generation may simply increase the risk posed by the development of Kim’s arsenal of nuclear weapons and missiles, designed to target the United States, South Korea and Japan. According to photographs by North Korean media, Kim’s delegation will most likely come with Pak Thae Song, chairman of North Korea’s Space Science and Technology Committee, and Navy Admiral Kim Myong Sik, both of whom are connected to North Korea’s efforts to obtain nuclear-capable spy satellites and submarines.
Kim Jong Un also appears to bring Jo Chun Ryong, a ruling arms policy official who had accompanied the leader on his recent visits to factories that generate artillery and missiles.
After decades of complicated, hot and bloodless relations, Russia and North Korea have been growing closer since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This connection is driven by Putin’s need for war aid and Kim’s efforts to increase the visibility of his partnerships. The classic allies of Moscow and Beijing as it tries to break its diplomatic isolation and North Korea are part of a united front against Washington.
While the diversion provoked by the confrontation in Ukraine to boost the advance of its weapons, North Korea has continuously blamed Washington for the crisis in Ukraine, claiming that the West’s “hegemonic policy” justified a Russian offensive in Ukraine to protect itself.
North Korea is the only country, along with Russia and Syria, to recognise the independence of two Russian-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine – Donetsk and Luhansk – and has also alluded to its interest in sending structural personnel to those regions with restructuring efforts. . .
Russia, as well as China, have blocked US-led efforts at the UN Security Council to tighten sanctions against North Korea over its escalating missile tests, while accusing Washington of escalating tensions with Pyongyang by expanding military training with South Korea and Japan.
Since last year, the United States has accused North Korea of supplying weapons to Russia, adding artillery shells sold to the Russian mercenary organization Wagner. Russian and North Korean officials have denied the allegations. But hypotheses about military cooperation between the two countries intensified after the Russian defense. Minister Sergei Shoigu made a rare visit to North Korea in July, when Kim invited him to a weapons show and a large military parade in the capital, where he displayed intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to target the United States.
After the visit, Kim visited North Korea’s weapons factories, adding a facility that generates artillery systems, where he suggested personnel to boost progress and large-scale production of new types of munitions. Experts say Kim’s visits to factories likely had a double effect. Purpose: to inspire the modernization of North Korean weaponry and read about artillery and other materials that could be exported to Russia.
Some analysts say an imaginable meeting between Kim and Putin would have more to do with token gains than truly broad military cooperation.
Russia, which has kept its most important weapons technologies close, even in the face of key allies such as China, may be reluctant to make primary transfers with North Korea for what will likely be limited war materiel transported via a small railway. link between countries, disienten. ___
Associated Press writers Jim Heintz in Tallinn, Estonia, Aamer Madhani and Matthew Lee in Washington, and Dake Kang and Ng Han Guan in Fangchuan, China, contributed.
___
Follow AP on https://apnews. com/hub/russia-ukraine
. . .
Loading trending content. . . .
Did you know that Riverbender. com is available to you thanks to our wonderful advertisers?We have detected that it is ad blocking software. Provide visibility to our sponsors by disabling their ad blocking service for Riverbender. com.