North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reportedly pledged full support to Russian President Vladimir Putin during the former’s visit to Russia. He crossed over his country’s border with Russia in an armored train that reports said only traveled 25 miles per hour. Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation Alexander Kozlov, co-chairman of the intergovernmental commission from the Russian side, met Kim upon his entry to Russia.
The two met at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East.
Putin arrived late according to the South Korean newspaper Hankook Ilbo. The meeting lasted for at least four hours. Kim’s younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, accompanied him on the visit. Putin and Kim toured the cosmodrome, inspecting launch rockets used by the Russians to send satellites into space.
The two previously met in Vladivostok in April 2019.
North Korea Interested in Russian Satellite Technology
North Korea wants satellite technology from Russia, and the cosmodrome serves as Russia’s main satellite launch facility.
“The glory of Rossiya (Russia), which gave birth to the first conquerors of space, will be immortal,” Kim wrote in the guestbook at the cosmodrome.
He also praised Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling it a “sacred fight to defend sovereignty and security.”
“Russia, as one of the world’s leaders in nuclear, satellite, space launch, and missile technologies, can help North Korea beef up its military-industrial technology base,” Rebekah Koffler, a strategic military intelligence analyst, former senior official at the Defense Intelligence Agency and author of “Putin’s Playbook,” told Fox News Digital. “It is no coincidence that North Korea recently unveiled its new tactical nuclear attack submarine. North Korea growing its arsenal of weapons of mass destruction is obviously not in the U.S. interest.”
North Korea launched two ballistic missiles while Kim was in Russia to highlight its technical capabilities.
“They don’t like it because Russia still commits to the cause of nuclear nonproliferation and missile nonproliferation,” former South Korean ambassador to Russia Wi Sung-lac told NPR.”But still, they have another consideration, which is strategic and geopolitical.”
Kim, Putin Promise Closer Cooperation
Top Russian and North Korean diplomats and leaders participated including four deputy Russian prime ministers ― Denis Manturov, Marat Khusnullin, Alexei Overchuk and Yuri Trutnev ― participated, as well as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, his colleagues from the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Natural Resources Vitaly Savelyev and Alexander Kozlov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. The Russian defense minister visited Pyongyang at the end of July and discussed gaining North Korean support for Russia’s war in Ukraine. North Korean Foreign and Defense Ministers Choi Son Hee and Kang Sun Nam, as well as Marshal Park Jong-cheon, head of the department of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, joined Kim.
“Our current visit is taking place at a time when a fierce confrontation between progress and reactionism, between justice and injustice is unfolding in the international arena, and the process of [building] a multipolar world is developing vigorously thanks to the common will and united power of independent forces,” Kim said. “Comrade Putin and I have just discussed in depth the military-political situation on the Korean Peninsula and in Europe.”
Putin reminded Kim of the support the Soviet Union gave his grandfather Kim Il Sung during the Korean War and in establishing North Korea. Kim vowed to build “indestructible relations of strategic cooperation” with Russia.
Closer Military Cooperation Expected
“I believe the plan is for Russia to provide technical assistance in stages for North Korea’s needs, such as reentry technology for ICBMs [intercontinental ballistic missiles], and advancement of hypersonic missiles and SLBMs [submarine-launched ballistic missiles],” Hong Min, a North Korea expert at the Korea Institute for National Unification, a government-funded think tank in Seoul, told NPR.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS they also “talked about the fact that, if the North Korean side wishes, it is possible to prepare and launch a North Korean cosmonaut into space.”
Speculation of heightened cooperation between the Russians and North Koreans in naval and other matters has been heightened in the wake of North Korea’s launch of a tactical nuclear ballistic missile submarine last week.
“The chairman has a big program ahead of him. He is still [going] from here to Komsomolsk-on-Amur, he will visit factories where aviation equipment is produced ― both civilian and military. Then it will be in Vladivostok, and there is also such a military unit ― through the Ministry of Defense. It consists simply in demonstrating the capabilities of the Pacific Fleet,” Putin said.
John Rossomando is a defense and counterterrorism analyst and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
