Tokyo, 13 September, /AJMEDIA/
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met Wednesday afternoon in the Russian Far East, Tass news agency reported, as the two countries aim to expand their military cooperation to aid Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
At the summit at the Vostochny Cosmodrome space launch center in the Amur region, the provision of North Korean weapons, ammunition and technology to support Moscow’s war effort is likely to top the agenda, sources close to Russian authorities said prior to the meeting.
Putin, who according to the sources arrived at the space launch center late Tuesday, welcomed Kim on arrival and they shook hands, Russian state television footage showed.
The meeting comes immediately in the wake of North Korea launching two short-range ballistic missiles toward the Sea of Japan. Neither of the projectiles landed within Japan’s exclusive economic zone, with no damage to ships or planes reported, the Japanese government said.
The official Korean Central News Agency said Kim arrived at Khasan station on the Russian side of the border by special train on Tuesday morning.
At a welcome ceremony held at the station, Kim was quoted by KCNA as saying that the visit, his first overseas trip since the outbreak of the coronavirus, clearly shows North Korea’s focus on the “strategic importance” of the relationship with Russia.
Kim is scheduled to visit a factory that manufactures Sukhoi fighters and other aircraft in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the Khabarovsk region after his talks with Putin, the first since April 2019 when they met in Vladivostok, according to the sources.
Since the launch of its war on Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has been sanctioned by the Group of Seven nations and other like-minded countries. The sanctions include bans on cutting-edge technology exports to Russia and asset freezes on Russian individuals and banks.
Meanwhile, the United States and its East Asian security allies, Japan and South Korea, have been boosting their trilateral defense collaboration in the face of Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile threats.
Kim last held talks with a foreign leader in June 2019 when he met then-U.S. President Donald Trump in the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjeom.