Without allies in the West, Russia continues to actively seek to deepen relations in the East. Relations with North Korea have gone from ‘important’ to ‘strategic’ in three months. The policy of condemning Pyongyang’s nuclear program is behind us, as evidenced by the Russian Foreign Minister’s visit to the North Korean capital.
Sergei Lavrov was greeted at the airport by heavy rain and his counterpart, Choe Son Hui, the first woman to head the communist regime’s diplomacy. Later, at a banquet, the minister thanked his hosts for their support of the policy of invasion and annexation of Ukrainian territories. Russia, he said, appreciates North Korea’s “unwavering and principled support” in the war against Ukraine, as well as Pyongyang’s decision to recognize the independence of the regions annexed by Russia. North Korea and Syria, whose regimes survived thanks to Russian military intervention, were the only countries to recognize the inclusion of Kherson, Zaporizhia, Luhansk and Donetsk into the Russian Federation after a simulacrum of referendums.
“We are fully aware that many countries around the world share similar views and assessments, but only a few, such as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, explicitly declare and can express their solidarity with Russia,” said the man in charge gave to Russian diplomacy for almost twenty years.
Lavrov witnessed the rapprochement between the two countries after the implosion of the Soviet Union and the famine of the 1990s, first as Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations and since 2004 at the Foreign Ministry. But despite Vladimir Putin being the first Russian leader to visit North Korea and military cooperation agreements being signed, relations remained distant.
Russia maintained a distant relationship with the communist dictatorship and repeatedly condemned its nuclear program at the UN – until North Korea defended its invasion of Ukraine.
Still under Kim Jong-il, Russia voted in the UN Security Council for sanctions against Pyongyang over its nuclear weapons and missile programs, after participating in talks for the North Koreans to give up their nuclear program, but without success. With Kim Jong-un already on the throne, Moscow would again condemn North Korea’s nuclear program and support new sanctions in 2016 and 2017.
The first attempt to change the course of relations took place in 2019, when Kim went to Vladivostok in his armored train for a summit with Putin. Apart from the indirect words, nothing concrete was produced. Everything changed with the invasion of Ukraine in February last year. “The main cause of the Ukrainian crisis lies entirely in the hegemonic policies of the US and the West, which are imposed by arrogance and abuse of power against other countries,” a regime spokesman said four days after Putin denounced the “denazification” of Ukraine announced. . In return, Russia stopped condemning North Korea’s nuclear policy in the Security Council.
Strategic level
As talks continue on a political pact to employ up to 50,000 North Korean workers in Russia, despite Security Council resolutions banning such deals, the United States has accused Russia of resorting to Pyongyang’s ammunition. In July, Russia’s defense minister went to Pyongyang, when Sergei Shoigu said he was visiting an “important partner.” Kim showed Shoigu an exhibition of defense equipment. In September, the dictator reentered Russian countries by train, where he met Putin again, now at the Vostochny space center in Siberia, and inspected some of Russia’s most advanced weapons.
Russia, which needs ammunition and artillery weapons, which North Korea has in abundance, could provide technology, grain or oil. The details have yet to be determined. Washington accused North Korea of having delivered more than a thousand containers of military equipment to Russia in recent weeks.
What is certain is that Lavrov qualified bilateral relations to “a qualitatively new strategic level.” On the North Korean side, the formulation used is ‘strategic and tactical cooperation’.
Lavrov, who is from China, adapted the speech to Cold War terms. “Russia expresses its solidarity and full support for the will of North Korea, under the leadership of its leader, Comrade Kim Jong-un, to defend its independence and the right of its people to determine its own destiny and its forms of development .” he said, quoted by TASS. He also praised North Korea for “strongly defending its sovereignty and security and remaining unfazed by any pressure from the US and the West,” and that Russia fully supports the Kim administration’s policies to protect its security and economic interests.
Source: DN
