Reports reaching the desk of Africa Today News, New York has it that the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin has accepted an invitation from Kim Jong Un to visit North Korea after the two leaders held their first face-to-face summit in four years.
In addition to advancing his nation’s military modernisation, Kim is in Russia’s far east as Putin seeks to strengthen relations in the midst of Russia’s protracted conflict in Ukraine.
He extended the invitation to Putin at ‘a convenient time’ at a reception to mark the end of a day where the two held more than four hours of talks and toured the Vostochny Cosmodrome space centre.
‘Putin accepted the invitation with pleasure and reaffirmed his will to invariably carry forward the history and tradition of the Russia-DPRK friendship,’ North Korean state news agency KCNA said on Thursday, using the acronym for the country’s official name.
Africa Today News, New York reports that the talks in Russia have raised concern in the United States and elsewhere that Kim might be prepared to sell arms to Moscow for its war in Ukraine, perhaps in exchange for technology that would further his military ambitions.
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The North Korean leader is also expected to visit an aircraft factory and travel to Vladivostok where he will view Russia’s Pacific fleet. Kim’s delegation includes his defence minister, his top military commander and the director of the country’s munitions department.
Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said the members of Kim’s delegation, as well as the location for the summit, were “quite telling” even though no joint statement was issued.
“The composition of Kim’s delegation suggests North Korea may send munitions to Russia in exchange for military technology. Meeting at Russia’s eastern spaceport was equivalent to Putin thumbing his nose at UN Security Council Resolutions,” Easley said in emailed comments. “This should be a wake-up call to all other UN member states about the need to redouble efforts at enforcing sanctions on Pyongyang.”
In its report, KCNA said the two leaders agreed to further strengthen strategic and tactical cooperation in the face of the “military threats, provocations and tyranny of imperialists”.
Putin, meanwhile, praised the “strengthening of cooperation and friendship between our countries” and told reporters he saw “possibilities” for military cooperation with North Korea. Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, who was a guest of honour at events to mark the 70th anniversary of the armistice that ended the fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War, in Pyongyang in July, was also involved in the talks.
The Russian leader said earlier that Moscow could help Pyongyang build satellites – Kim has argued a spy satellite is crucial for North Korea’s weapons development but its two attempts this year to put one into orbit have both ended in failure.
Some analysts suggested North Korea might want to try using a Russian space launch vehicle for the satellite and work with Russia to build a more powerful piece of equipment.
“It’s possible that North Korea pushes to participate in the production process of the satellite, rather than just acquiring a finished product, to set up a natural transfer of technologies,” Yang Uk, a military expert at South Korea’s Asian Institute for Policy Studies, told the Associated Press news agency.
Just before Putin and Kim met, North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles, the latest in a series of launches in breach of United Nations sanctions that prohibit such activities.