Seoul: Russia’s top security official met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang on Friday and discussed the war in Ukraine and other security issues, including the Korean Peninsula, Russian media outlets reported.
Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu also delivered a message from Russian President Vladimir Putin to Kim, according to the TASS and Sputnik news agencies. The meeting lasted for over two hours.
Shoigu said he discussed the “beginning of a dialogue” with the United States on the war in Ukraine and other security issues in “various regions and on the Korean Peninsula,” Sputnik reported.
Sending Putin’s “warmest wishes” to Kim, he said Putin is paying the “utmost attention to the implementation” of the bilateral treaty signed between the two leaders in June last year.
Shoigu confirmed Russia’s “unconditional readiness to comply with the provisions of the treaty,” TASS reported.
Shoigu arrived in the North Korean capital earlier in the day, leading a delegation from Russia’s Security Council.
North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Kim Jong-gyu, Russian Ambassador Alexandr Matsegora and other officials greeted the delegation, which visited the Liberation Tower and laid a wreath, according to the North’s state media.
“The participants paid a silent tribute to the memory of the fallen fighters of the Soviet Army before looking round the tower,” the KCNA said.
The visit marks the latest in a recent series of high-level exchanges between North Korea and Russia, which have grown closer, with Pyongyang deploying thousands of troops to support Moscow in its war against Ukraine, Yonhap news agency reported.
Earlier this month, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko travelled to Pyongyang, where he met North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui and discussed arranging “political contacts at the high and top levels,” as previously reported by Tass.
Appearing on Yonhap News TV in November, South Korea’s National Security Adviser Shin Won-sik said the possibility of Kim visiting Russia cannot be ruled out, speculating that if the visit takes place, it could be in the form of reciprocation for Russian President Putin’s visit to North Korea in June last year.
At that time, Putin invited Kim to Moscow for summit talks. Russia’s Victory Day holiday on May 9, which commemorates the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in 1945, is widely speculated to be a potential occasion for Kim’s visit to Russia as the country marks the 80th anniversary of its victory this year.
The latest visit also comes amid US attempts to broker a ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war, with US President Donald Trump and Putin agreeing over the phone earlier this week on Russia’s temporary halt to strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
During Putin’s visit to Pyongyang last year, the two leaders signed a mutual defence treaty, elevating bilateral military cooperation and leading to North Korea’s troop deployment to Russia.
The deal has sparked international concerns that the two countries’ military alignment could lead to Russia transferring rare missiles and other high-tech arms technology to North Korea in return for its troop deployment.
(IANS)
