Putin’s spokeswoman, Elena Yakovleva, said Putin will start his trip in Beijing, where he will spend two days before flying off to North Korea – a nation he last visited in 1991; the first Russian leader to visit North Korea in 24 years stresses the growing closeness of the two nuclear powers.
Kim Jong Un invited Putin during his visit to Russia’s east in September, where the two tapered their first meeting since 2019. The Kremlin declared this Wednesday that Putin plans to attend an official “friendly visit” to North Korea on June 18-19.
The visit comes following speculation that Pyongyang could be supplying Moscow with much-needed weapons for the conflict in Ukraine as North Korea enhances its military-industrial complex with Russian support through economic cooperation and technology sharing.
China, as are the United States and South Korea, are concerned by the potential security risks that enhanced bilateral relations pose for the neighboring countries. Rather, for Kim Jong-un, the visit is seen as a ‘win’ that elevates North Korea’s status among countries resisting what is recognized as the ‘U. S.-led international system’ and shore up his regime’s position at home.
Although North Korea cannot remunerate Moscow for its assistance in the same way as it does with China, the recent rapprochement with the Kremlin means that the Kim regime can diversify and establish an ‘axis of transactional’. Analysts believe that North Korea has concessions in nuclear weapons technology in the hope of receiving better supplies of arms from Russia.
This visit is likely to produce a cooperation framework that would lay down security among the areas of cooperation. As Russian officials have noted, the contract will not be used against some other country, but it will further determine the potential for cooperation between both states.
The important sessions with Putin and North Korean authorities are planned for Wednesday, and over the weekend, there were signs that North Korea may stage a military parade in Pyongyang timed with Putin’s visit.
The deepening cooperation between Russia, and the DPRK, both are under various sanctions, will continue to erode further the confidence of the United States and its allies in Europe and Asia about the stability of the respective regions and the changing international security situation.
