North Korea said on Sunday that it had agreed to continue strategic and tactical cooperation with Russia to create a “new multipolar international order,” as the two countries sought to build a united front in the face of their separate, escalating tensions with the United States. .
In describing North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow last week, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Putin also confirmed his willingness to visit Pyongyang and said it could come at an “early date.”
North Korea has been actively strengthening its ties with Russia, highlighted by leader Kim Jong Un’s September visit to Russia for a summit with Putin.
Kim is trying to break out of diplomatic isolation and consolidate his position as he navigates a deepening nuclear standoff with Washington, Seoul and Tokyo.
In a separate statement on Sunday, the North’s Foreign Ministry criticized the UN Security Council for calling an emergency meeting over the country’s latest ballistic test, which state media described as a new intermediate-range solid-fuel missile with a hypersonic warhead.
A photo released by the official North Korean Central News Agency shows the test firing of an intermediate-range solid-fuel ballistic missile loaded with a hypersonic cruise control warhead in North Korea on January 14, 2024. KCNA VIA KNS/AFP via Getty Images
The ministry said the firing test on January 14 was one of the country’s normal activities to improve its defense capabilities and that it did not pose a threat to its neighboring countries.
South Korea on Thursday urged the Security Council “to break the silence” over North Korea’s increasing missile tests and threats.
Russia and China, both permanent members of the council, have blocked US-led efforts to increase sanctions on North Korea over its recent weapons tests, underscoring deepening divisions over Russia’s war on Ukraine.
The alignment between Pyongyang and Moscow has raised international concerns over alleged arms cooperation, in which the North provides weapons to Russia to help prolong its fighting in Ukraine, possibly in exchange for much-needed economic and military aid to help boost Kim’s forces.
North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui arrives to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. AP
Both Pyongyang and Russia have denied accusations by Washington and Seoul of North Korean arms transfers to Russia.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry, in comments broadcast by state media, said Choe and Russian officials in their meeting expressed “a strong desire to further strengthen strategic and tactical cooperation in defending the two countries’ core interests and creating a new multi-polarized international.” order.”
Russia expressed “deep gratitude” to North Korea for its “full support” of its war on Ukraine, the North Korean ministry said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (center L) attends the 10th session of the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly (National Assembly) at the Mansudae Assembly Hall in Pyongyang on January 15, 2024. KCNA VIA KNS/AFP via Getty Images
It said Choe and Russian officials expressed “serious concern” over growing US military cooperation with its Asian allies that they blame for worsening tensions in the region and threatening North Korea’s sovereignty and security interests.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest level in years, after Kim in recent months used Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a distraction to increase his weapons tests and military demonstrations.
The United States, South Korea and Japan have responded by ramping up their joint military exercises, which Kim described as invasion exercises, and sharpening their deterrence plans built around nuclear-capable US assets.
Kim Jong Un meets Putin at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Amur Region of Russia’s Far East Region, Sept. 13. 2023. via REUTERS
In the latest tit-for-tat, North Korea on Friday said it conducted a test of an underwater attack drone it said was nuclear-capable in response to joint naval exercises by the United States, South Korea and Japan last week, as it continued to blame its rival for tensions in the region.
Choe’s visit to Moscow comes as Kim continues to use domestic political events to issue provocative threats of nuclear conflict.
In Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp parliament last week, Kim declared that North Korea was abandoning its long-standing goal of peaceful unification with war-torn rival South Korea and ordered a rewrite of the North’s constitution to cement the South as its most hostile foreign enemy. . He accused South Korea of acting as America’s “leg of the upper class” and repeated threats that he would use his nukes to destroy the South if provoked.
Analysts say North Korea may aim to reduce South Korea’s voice in the regional nuclear standoff and eventually force direct dealings with Washington as it seeks to cement its status as a nuclear weapons state.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
