North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrived in Russia on Tuesday on an armored train to meet with President Vladimir Putin, a meeting that sparked a wave of speculation about the possibility of both countries signing an arms agreement in the middle of the Russian war with Ukraine. Both Russians and North Koreans confirmed the future meeting but did not detail the exact date or place. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said only that the summit will be held this week and? will deal with “sensitive” issues for both countries.
Kim left Pyongyang on Sunday in his private green and gold train, accompanied by an important delegation of military officers, according to images released by the official press of the North Korean leader’s first trip abroad in four years. Kim Jong-un’s first visit to Russia was in April 2019 and he also traveled on an armored train.
The delegation accompanying the North Korean leader includes military personnel and the head of diplomacy. Among them is the army’s second-in-command, Ri Pyong Chol, the target of US and UN sanctions for his role in directing the country’s ballistic missile programs. Kim briefly left his car at the Kazan train station in the Russian Far East, where he was received by Russian Minister of Natural Resources, Alexander Kozlov, and the governor of that Russian region, Oleg Kojemiako.
“A visit of this level is a good message for the development of direct contacts with our colleagues in North Korea,” Kojemiako said on his Telegram account. Putin is in Vladivostok for an annual economic forum that ends Wednesday and did not comment on the visit. So far it is known that Putin will organize a lunch in honor of the North Korean leader, there will be a meeting with the delegations of both countries and a face to face between the head of the Kremlin and his counterpart.
The agenda will include bilateral relations and cooperation, commercial and economic ties, cultural exchanges, international and regional affairs, and “sensitive issues.” This last mention by Dmitri Peskov is interpreted as a confirmation that the two leaders will talk about an agreement on the supply of weapons by North Korea to Russia, immersed for 566 days in the war it launched in Ukraine.
Arms deal?
Analysts believe the visit will end with an arms sales agreement, despite warnings from the United States. Washington’s suspicions lie in Moscow’s need to acquire new supplies of ammunition and shells, after more than 18 months of war with Ukraine. On the North Korean side it weighs Pyongyang’s lack of cash and fooddue to years of international sanctions over its nuclear weapons program.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller reminded both countries that “any arms transfer from North Korea to Russia would violate multiple UN Security Council resolutions.” Miller argued that the fact that Russia “has to beg North Korea for military support” speaks to the effectiveness of sanctions and export controls. “For us, the interests of our two countries are important and not the warnings from Washington,” replied Russian Foreign Minister Peskov.
North Korea is already under sanctions imposed by the UN and the United States for its ballistic missile program, which he continued to develop at a dizzying pace over the past two years. In that period he tested dozens of missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, which in theory could deliver a nuclear warhead over the territory of the United States.
Moscow, for its part, needs ammunition and small arms to use on the Ukrainian front. Putin and his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu have ordered the country’s defense industry to double weapons production, but according to Western and Ukrainian intelligence, it is failing to produce missiles as quickly as it is spending them in Ukraine. Russia also has to look for cutting-edge technology and microchips in “friendly” countries willing to expose themselves to sanctions.
