The North Korean leader could not have been more effusive when he addressed the Russian host, after the visit to the Vostochny cosmodrome, 8,000 kilometers from Moscow, promising to always stand by Russia’s side, which, he said, a holy battle’. The UN and the United States have expressed concern about this approach, although nothing concrete has yet been signed. Shortly before, the Ukrainian air force carried out an attack on the port of Sevastopol, hitting an amphibious assault ship and, for the first time, a submarine.
“Russia is currently waging a holy struggle against hegemonist forces to defend its sovereign rights, security and interests. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has always expressed its full and unconditional support for all measures taken by the Russian government and I take this opportunity to reaffirm that we will always support Russia on the anti-imperialist front and on the independence front” , said Kim Jong Un.
In Kim’s presence, Putin toasted the “future strengthening of cooperation” with Pyongyang: “In Korea there is a saying ‘New clothes are good, and a friend is old.’ In our country we say: ‘An old friend is better than two. new one,” the Russian said, to which Kim replied that he was “convinced that the “heroic Russian army,” the same army that would take Kiev in three days, will achieve “a great victory” in the “special military operation.” and that the Russian people will be successful in ‘building a strong state’, having also toasted ‘the new victories of great Russia’.
Moscow and Pyongyang will have found common ground for an agreement where Russia can fuel its artillery with ammunition and missiles against Ukraine, and in return help North Korea launch satellites and develop nuclear submarines, in addition to supplying food. Putin’s priority is not to lose face in Ukraine, but the international isolation caused by economic sanctions limits the country’s ability to produce certain weapons due to the technology it contains, and also limits the import of weapons and ammunition.
As a regime dependent on military forces, North Korea is sitting on a huge powder keg. In addition to producing conventional weapons, Pyongyang is stockpiling Soviet war materials. For example, it could supply missiles for the multiple Grad launchers used by Russian forces in Ukraine, or guns and howitzers from the 1950s and 1960s.
However, although the Russian leader showed very clear interest in cooperation in the field of space technology, or in “many other interesting projects” in the fields of transport and agriculture, he left doubts about military cooperation by stating that Russia respects. sanctions banning the acquisition of weapons from Pyongyang. “There are certain restrictions and Russia adheres to all of them. There are things we can talk about, we can discuss, we can think about. Russia is a self-sufficient country, but there are things that we can draw attention to, that we discuss. them,” Putin said.
On the issue, UN Secretary General António Guterres warned that “any form of cooperation by any country with North Korea must respect the sanctions regime imposed by the Security Council.” For the United States, the cooperation announced during the North Korean leader’s visit is “quite concerning and may violate several U.N. Security Council resolutions,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. In particular, Miller pointed to the fact that North Korean satellites were used to develop Pyongyang’s ballistic missiles.
“Any deal that improves North Korea’s military capabilities will certainly be a cause for concern,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. Washington, which had previously warned North Korea that it would pay a price if it supplied weapons to Russia, said through the head of the State Department’s Office of Sanction Coordination that an agreement between the countries would end existing sanctions would violate. As a result, James O’Brien said, the US would seek to identify the individuals and financial mechanisms used to “at least limit their effectiveness.”
Yohann Michel, an analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told AFP that this approach should be viewed with caution. “There may be interest from Russia. It remains to be seen whether it exists for North Korea and whether the Russians are willing to give what they ask for in return,” as both sides “weigh their interests,” he added. For Antoine Bondaz, an expert at the French Foundation for Strategic Research, it is yet another Russian “communication strategy” that “aims to put pressure on Seoul,” which indirectly supplies weapons to Ukraine through Poland, he wrote in Le Monde.
Many kilometers away, the head of the Ukrainian Air Force Mykola Oleshchuk thanked his pilots for “the excellent combat work”, suggesting that the explosions that left the submarine in an irreparable state Rostov-na-Don and the amphibious assault ship Minsk The port of Sevastopol was targeted by aviation and cruise missiles, either the British Storm Shadow or the French Scalp, were used.
Source: DN
