SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un returned home Sunday from Russia, ending a six-day trip that stoked global concerns over an arms transfer deal between the two countries locked in a separate standoff with the West.
Kim’s armored train departed to the sound of the Russian patriotic march song “Farewell of Slavianka” at the end of a farewell ceremony at the train station in Artyom, a city in far eastern Russia about 200 kilometers (124 miles) from the border with North Korea, the news agency said. Russian state RIA reported.
Senior officials including Russian Natural Resources Minister Alexander Kozlov and Primorye regional Governor Oleg Kozhemyako attended the ceremony, which featured Russian military bands playing both the North Korean and Russian national anthems.
It was Kim’s longest foreign trip since he took power in late 2011. Observers said Kim was expected to return to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, around Monday evening.
Since entering Russia on Tuesday on his first foreign trip in more than four years, Kim has met President Vladimir Putin and visited key military and technological sites, underscoring deepening national defense cooperation in the face of increasingly intense separate confrontations with the US and his country. ally. Foreign officials and experts say North Korea could provide much-needed ammunition for Moscow’s war on Ukraine in exchange for advanced Russian weapons technology that would advance Kim’s nuclear ambitions.
In this photo released by the Primorsky Krai Regional Government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un waves as he boards his train before leaving Artyom, near Vladivostok, in the Russian Far East on Sunday, September 17, 2023. via REUTERS
North Korea may have tens of millions of aging artillery shells and rockets based on Soviet designs that could bolster Russian forces in Ukraine, analysts say, although its older artillery systems have a reputation for poor accuracy. Both sides reportedly fired thousands of artillery rounds a day.
A UN Security Council resolution – which Russia, a permanent member, previously ratified – prohibits North Korea from exporting or importing any weapons. Observers say Russia’s alleged attempts to receive ammunition and artillery shells from North Korea suggest Moscow is desperate to replenish its war-weary arsenal with Ukraine.
“Military cooperation between North Korea and Russia is illegal and unjust because it violates UN Security Council resolutions and various other international sanctions,” South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said in a written response Sunday to questions from The Associated Press. “The international community will unite even more closely in response to such a move.”
Kim Jong Un, center, walks past an honor guard before leaving Artyom, near Vladivostok, Russia.AP
In return for supplying Russia with conventional weapons, experts say North Korea will seek Russian economic and food aid but also the transfer of technology to build powerful missiles, nuclear-powered submarines and spy satellites. North Korea has openly sought to introduce such high-tech weapons systems citing the so-called US-led escalation of hostilities.
Earlier Sunday, Kim was in lighter mode, visiting a university and watching a walrus show at a Russian aquarium. Russian state media released a video of Kim, accompanied by his top officials, speaking to Russian officials through a translator on the campus of the Far Eastern Federal University on Russky Island.
At the island’s Primorsky Aquarium, Russia’s largest, Kim watched a show featuring beluga whales, bottlenose dolphins, fur seals and “Misha” the walrus, which he apparently enjoys, according to Russian media.
Russian officials wave to a train carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as it departs from a train station in the city of Artyom.via REUTERS
Kozhemyako, the governor of Primorye, said a delegation from the Russian Far East would visit North Korea. According to Russian state media, Kozhemyako said he will be part of a delegation that will travel with experts from the trade, tourism and agriculture sectors. The exact time for the visit to North Korea has not been announced.
On Saturday, Kim traveled to an airport near Vladivostok, where Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and other senior military officials gave him a close-up look at Russian strategic bombers and other warplanes. Kim and Shoigu then went to Vladivostok, where they inspected Admiral Shaposhnikov’s frigate.
On Friday, Kim visited an aircraft factory in the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur that produces Russia’s most powerful fighter jets.
The Russian warplanes shown to Kim on Saturday were among the types that have seen action in Ukraine, including Tu-160, Tu-95 and Tu-22 bombers that regularly launch cruise missiles. During Kim’s visit, Shoigu and Lt. General Sergei Kobylash, commander of Russia’s long-range bomber force, confirmed for the first time that the Tu-160 recently received a new cruise missile with a range of more than 6,500 kilometers (more than 4,040 miles).
Shoigu, who had met Kim during a rare visit to North Korea in July, also showed Kim another of Russia’s newest missiles, the hypersonic Kinzhal, carried by a MiG-31 fighter jet, which saw its first combat during the war in Ukraine.
North Korean state media reported that Kim and Shoigu spoke about the regional security environment and exchanged views on “practical issues arising in further strengthening strategic and tactical coordination, cooperation and mutual exchanges between the armed forces of the two countries.”
Kim’s summit with Putin was held at Russia’s main space launch site, a location that has signaled his desire to enlist Russia’s help in its efforts to acquire space-based reconnaissance assets and missile technology. In recent months, two North Korean launches to send spy satellites into space have ended in failure, and the North has vowed to conduct a third attempt in October.
During the meeting with Putin, Kim said his country would offer “full and unconditional support” for Russia’s fight to defend its security interests, in an apparent reference to the war in Ukraine. Kim invited Putin to visit North Korea at an “appropriate time,” and Putin accepted.
It was Kim’s second summit with Putin. The previous meeting took place in Vladivostok in April 2019, two months after Kim’s crucial nuclear diplomacy with then US President Donald Trump fell apart during their second summit in Vietnam.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
