SEOUL, South Korea — Russian Protection Minister Andrei Belousov arrived in North Korea on Friday for talks with North Korean navy and political leaders because the international locations deepen their cooperation over Russia’s warfare in Ukraine.
In asserting the go to, Russia’s Protection Ministry didn’t say whom Belousov would meet or the aim of the talks. North Korean state media didn’t instantly verify the go to.
Belousov, a former economist, changed Sergei Shoigu as protection minister in Could after Russian President Vladimir Putin began a fifth time period in energy.
Images launched by the Protection Ministry confirmed Belousov strolling alongside North Korean Protection Minister No Kwang Chol on a pink carpet at a Pyongyang airport. North Korean navy officers had been seen clapping underneath a banner that learn, “Complete support and solidarity with the fighting Russian army and people.”
Belousov famous after his arrival that navy cooperation between the international locations is increasing. He applauded a strategic partnership settlement signed by Putin and North Korean chief Kim Jong Un following their June assembly in Pyongyang, which he stated is geared toward lowering tensions by sustaining a “balance of power” within the area and reducing the danger of warfare, together with with nuclear weapons.
The June assembly demonstrated the “highest level of mutual trust” between the leaders, Belousov stated, and “also the mutual desire of our countries to further expand mutually beneficial cooperation in a complex international environment.”
North Korean Protection Minister No additionally praised the increasing cooperation between the international locations’ militaries and reiterated North Korea’s assist for Russia’s warfare in Ukraine, describing it as a “just struggle to protect the country’s sovereign rights and security interests.”
The go to comes days after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol met with a Ukrainian delegation led by Protection Minister Rustem Umerov within the South Korean capital, Seoul, and known as for the 2 international locations to formulate countermeasures in response to North Korea’s dispatch of hundreds of troops to Russia to assist its battle in opposition to Ukraine.
Kim in current months has prioritized relations with Russia as he tries to interrupt out of isolation and strengthen his worldwide footing, embracing the concept of a “new Cold War.”
The US and its allies have stated North Korea has despatched greater than 10,000 troopers to Russia in current weeks and that a few of these troops had been participating in fight.
North Korea has additionally been accused of supplying artillery programs, missiles and different navy tools to Russia which will assist Putin additional prolong an virtually three-year warfare. There are additionally considerations in Seoul that North Korea, in alternate for its troops and arms provides, may obtain Russian know-how transfers that might enhance its nuclear weapons and missile applications.
“The Russian defense minister doesn’t visit North Korea just to celebrate bilateral ties,” stated Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha College in Seoul. “This visit indicates Putin and Kim’s military cooperation in violation of international law is about to increase further.”
Yoon’s nationwide safety adviser, Shin Wonsik, stated in a TV interview final week that Seoul believes that Russia has supplied air protection missile programs to North Korea in alternate for sending its troops.
Shin stated Russia additionally seems to have given financial help to North Korea and numerous navy applied sciences, together with these wanted for the North’s efforts to construct a dependable space-based surveillance system, which Kim has careworn is essential for enhancing the specter of nuclear-capable missiles concentrating on South Korea. Shin didn’t say whether or not Russia has already transferred delicate nuclear weapons and ballistic missile applied sciences to North Korea.
Yoon’s workplace hasn’t stated whether or not the 2 governments mentioned the potential for South Korea supplying weapons to Ukraine in his talks with Umerov.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, South Korea has joined U.S.-led sanctions in opposition to Moscow and supplied humanitarian and monetary assist to Kyiv. Nevertheless it has prevented instantly supplying arms, citing a longstanding coverage of not giving deadly weapons to international locations actively engaged in conflicts.
Yoon has stated his authorities will take phased countermeasures, linking the extent of its response to the diploma of Russian-North Korean cooperation.
It wasn’t instantly clear whether or not Belousov will meet with Kim, the North Korean chief. Final yr, Kim hosted a Russian delegation led by then-Protection Minister Shoigu and gave him a private tour of a North Korean arms exhibition, in what exterior critics likened to a gross sales pitch.
That occasion got here weeks earlier than Kim traveled to Russia for talks with Putin which sped up navy cooperation between the international locations. Throughout one other assembly in Pyongyang in June this yr, Kim and Putin signed a pact stipulating mutual navy help if both nation is attacked, in what was thought-about the 2 international locations’ greatest protection deal because the finish of the Chilly Warfare.
The Russian report about Belousov’s go to got here as South Korea scrambled fighter jets to repel six Russian and 5 Chinese language warplanes that briefly entered the nation’s air protection identification zone round its japanese and southern seas, in keeping with the South’s Joint Chiefs of Workers. It stated the Russian and Chinese language planes didn’t breach South Korea’s territorial airspace.
South Korea’s Protection Ministry stated it held phone calls with Chinese language and Russian protection attaches primarily based in Seoul to protest the flights and urge the international locations to forestall recurrences.