SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — As he heads to Pyongyang on Tuesday for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked North Korea for supporting his actions in Ukraine and said the two countries would work closely to overcome U.S.-led sanctions.
Putin’s comments were published in an opinion piece in North Korea’s state media just hours before he is expected to arrive in North Korea for a two-day visit as the two countries deepen ties amid their respective escalating conflicts with Washington.
Putin, visiting North Korea for the first time in 24 years, said he appreciated North Korea’s firm support for its invasion of Ukraine and that the two countries would continue to “firmly oppose” Western ambitions to “obstruct the establishment of a multipolar world order based on justice and mutual respect.”
Putin also said Russia and North Korea would develop an unspecified trade and payment system “not controlled by the West” and would jointly oppose sanctions, which he described as “unilateral and illegal restrictive measures” against the two countries.
North Korea is under tough economic sanctions from the UN Security Council over its nuclear weapons and missile programs, while Russia is also under sanctions from the United States and its Western allies over its invasion of Ukraine.
Putin said the two countries also planned to expand cooperation in the fields of tourism, culture and education.
President Putin’s visit Growing concerns An arms deal that would see Pyongyang supply Moscow with urgently needed weapons to prop up Putin’s regime. Ukraine War In exchange for economic aid and technology transfers that increase the threat of Kim Jong Un’s nuclear weapons and missile programs.
Military, economic and other exchanges between North Korea and Russia have soared since Kim Jong Un visited Russia’s Far East in September for his first meeting with Putin since 2019.
U.S. and South Korean officials have accused North Korea of providing Russia with military equipment such as artillery and missiles to prolong the fighting in Ukraine, possibly in exchange for key military technology and assistance. Both Pyongyang and Moscow deny accusations of North Korean weapons transfers that would violate several U.N. Security Council sanctions that Russia previously approved.
Russia, along with China, has lent political protection to Kim Jong Un’s ongoing efforts to build up his nuclear arsenal and has repeatedly blocked U.S.-led efforts to impose new UN sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear tests.
In March, Russia used its veto at the United Nations to end monitoring of UN sanctions over North Korea’s nuclear program, and Western countries accused Russia of trying to circumvent oversight in buying weapons from North Korea for use in Ukraine.
Earlier this year, Putin gifted Kim Jong Un a luxury limousine called the Aurus Senat, which he showed off to the leader during their September summit, a move observers said violated U.N. resolutions banning the supply of luxury goods to North Korea.
John Kirby, a spokesman for the US National Security Council, said the deepening ties between Moscow and Pyongyang were cause for concern, saying: “We know that North Korean ballistic missiles are still being used to strike targets in Ukraine, and there is potential for interaction that could have implications for the security of the Korean peninsula, as well as the impact on the Ukrainian people.”
“At this point we don’t see all the parameters of that and we certainly don’t see it coming, but we’re definitely going to be watching it very closely,” he said.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula have reached their highest point in years, with Kim Jong Un’s weapons tests and joint military exercises between the U.S., South Korea and Japan escalating in a cycle of tit-for-tat. The peninsula is also engaged in a Cold War-style psychological warfare, with North Korea dropping tons of garbage into South Korea via balloons and South Korea broadcasting anti-Korean propaganda over loudspeakers.
South Korea’s military said its soldiers fired warning shots to repel North Korean forces. Temporarily passed South Korean troops intervened in the two countries’ land border area on Tuesday for the second time this month. The military said North Korea was stepping up construction activities on the front line in the border area, including installing what appeared to be anti-tank barriers, reinforcing roads and laying landmines.
Putin has continually sought to rebuild ties with North Korea as part of efforts to restore his country’s influence and Soviet-era alliances. Ties between Moscow and Pyongyang weakened after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Kim Jong Un first met Putin in 2019 in the eastern Russian port city of Vladivostok.
The Russian government said that after North Korea, Putin would visit Vietnam on Wednesday and Thursday for talks focusing on trade issues. The United States, which has long sought to strengthen ties and boost trade with Vietnam, criticized Putin’s planned visit.
“As Russia continues to seek international support to continue its illegal and brutal war against Ukraine, we reiterate that no country should give President Putin a platform to pursue his war of aggression and normalize his atrocities,” a U.S. embassy spokesman in Vietnam said in a statement.
