Unlock Editor’s Digest for free
FT editor Roula Khalaf picks her favorite stories in this week’s newsletter.
Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to work with North Korea to strengthen both regimes’ resistance to Western sanctions as he prepared to visit Pyongyang for the first time in 24 years and sign a new strategic partnership with Kim Jong Un.
Putin, who arrives in Pyongyang for a two-day visit late Tuesday, said Russia would seek to work closely with North Korea to resist pressure over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, according to an article published in the North Korean state newspaper Rodong Sinmun.
“We will develop alternative trade and mutual settlement mechanisms that will not be controlled by the West and will together resist illegitimate unilateral restrictions,” Putin wrote, adding that the countries “will build an architecture of equal and indivisible security in Eurasia.”
He also thanked North Korea for its support for Moscow in the war in Ukraine and pledged to support Pyongyang in the face of “US pressure, blackmail and military threats”.
North Korea on Tuesday reaffirmed its support for the Russian invasion, which Kim called a “holy war”.
Putin’s visit, which the Kremlin says will include a concert in his honor, comes amid growing concern in the West about deepening trade and military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang.
The Financial Times reported in March that Russia was supplying oil and oil products to North Korea in apparent exchange for ballistic missiles and artillery shells to be used on the battlefield in Ukraine.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Monday that North Korea had supplied Russia with “dozens of ballistic missiles and more than 11,000 containers of munitions”. Moscow and Pyongyang have denied the arms transfers.
Russia also blocked the reinstatement of a UN panel that oversees compliance with Security Council sanctions against North Korea, leading to the body’s dissolution.
Kim met Putin for the first time in four years in September in the Russian Far East, where he toured the Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia’s most advanced launch site for space rockets. Kim also invited the Russian president for a reciprocal trip.
Putin and Kim are expected to sign a strategic partnership agreement, which Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said was “driven by profound developments in the geopolitical situation in the world and in the region.”
Ushakov told reporters on Monday that the agreement would reflect “what has happened between our countries in recent years in international politics, economics and overall ties, including security issues,” according to Interfax.
The Russian delegation includes new Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, as well as Denis Manturov, the senior deputy prime minister overseeing the defense sector, and Alexander Novak, Moscow’s top energy official.
The warming ties have also raised concerns in the West about Russia providing technical assistance or military technology transfers to North Korea. Two months after Kim’s visit to Russia, North Korea claimed the first successful launch of a military spy satellite. Yuri Borisov, the head of the Russian space agency, is also accompanying Putin to Pyongyang.
The visit comes amid recent tensions on the Korean Peninsula after the two countries scrapped a 2018 military agreement aimed at reducing hostilities along the shared border.
South Korea’s military on Tuesday fired warning shots at dozens of North Korean soldiers who briefly crossed the demilitarized zone separating the countries, the second such incident this month. The North Korean military also suffered several casualties after a land mine exploded in the DMZ.
The Koreas have also stepped up psychological warfare efforts, with Seoul relaunching propaganda broadcasts across the border from loudspeakers in retaliation for Pyongyang sending up balloons filled with garbage.
Jenny Town, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center think tank, said Putin’s visit had “political value for Kim and demonstrated a strong global position” to his domestic audience.
“Kim Jong-un benefits a lot from his relationship with Russia. The opportunity to meet Putin, when he came out of a very difficult period of pandemic isolation and after unsuccessful negotiations with the USA and South Korea, is one big political victory for him,” she said.
“[It] helps present this image [Pyongyang] is a much bigger player in global politics than it should be.”