North Korea says chief Kim Jong Un has ordered unspecified steps to additional expand his country’s members of the family with Russia after his contemporary discuss with
ByHYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press
September 21, 2023, 9:38 PM
In this photograph equipped by way of the North Korean executive, North Korea chief Kim Jong Un, middle, attends a Politburo assembly in Pyongyang, North Korea Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. Independent newshounds weren’t given get entry to to quilt the development depicted on this symbol allotted by way of the North Korean executive. The content material of this symbol is as equipped and can’t be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service by means of AP)
The Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean chief Kim Jong Un ordered unspecified steps to additional expand members of the family with Russia after his contemporary discuss with to the rustic as his overseas opponents warn that any cooperation on army weapons could be unhealthy and carry penalties.
Experts speculated North Korea and Russia most likely mentioned banned hands switch deals and different cooperation measures throughout Kim’s six-day go back and forth closing week. They say the 2 nations are critical about sharply boosting their ties whilst they’re engaged in separate confrontations with the West.
During a Politburo assembly on Wednesday, Kim organized for paintings to be finished on additional growing bilateral ties at “a new high level at the practical stage” to consolidate “the success” of his Russia trip, the official Korean Central News Agency said Friday.
Kim underscored the need to expand bilateral cooperation in every field, making a substantial contribution to the promotion of the well-being of the people of the two countries, KCNA said.
While traveling in Russia’s Far East, Kim met with President Vladimir Putin and visited key Russian military and technology sites. The two suggested they would cooperate on defense issues but gave no specifics, which left South Korea and its allies — including the United States — uneasy.
Observers say Kim could ship ammunitions to refill Putin’s exhausted arms stores to back his war efforts in Ukraine in return for receiving sophisticated weapons technologies and economic aid.
The U.S., South Korea and their partners have warned that Russia and North Korea would pay a price if they proceed with such deals in breach of U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban any weapons trade with North Korea. Russia, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, voted for those U.N. resolutions.
Speaking before the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said any action by a permanent U.N. Security Council member to circumvent international norms would be dangerous and “paradoxical.” Yoon said that South Korea, together with its allies, “will not sit idly by” over a imaginable Pyongyang-Moscow weapons deal that he stated would pose a risk to now not handiest Ukraine but in addition South Korea.
Many mavens say North Korea would search Russian lend a hand to entire the improvement of high-tech weapons programs such as secret agent satellites, nuclear-powered submarines and robust long-range missiles. They say Kim desires to modernize his weapons arsenals to wrest higher concessions from the U.S. and South Korea.
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