Follow the latest updates on the meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East on Wednesday.
WHAT TO KNOW:
— North Korean leader Kim Jong Un traveled to Russia and met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The visit marks a growing alignment of the isolated leaders of the nuclear-armed states.
— The leaders are trying to deepen their relationship as each one is locked in confrontation with the United States.
— Kim traveled to Russia in a special armored train, following a tradition begun by his predecessors.
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South Korea says that North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast as leader Kim Jong Un was in Russia for meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said it was the first time the North launched a missile while Kim was on a rare trip overseas.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said its nuclear envoy, Kim Gunn, spoke by phone with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts and that they condemned the North Korean launches as a “clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolution and a serious threat to the region’s peace and stability.”
With the summit focused on military cooperation, Kim could have ordered the launches to demonstrate North Korea’s defense posture and show that he remains in close control of the country’s military activities even while abroad, said Moon Seong Mook, an analyst with the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy.
Moon, a retired South Korean brigadier general who participated in past inter-Korean military talks, said the North could have also intended to express its anger toward the United States, after State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a press briefing that Putin was meeting “an international pariah" seeking assistance in a war.
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The Putin-Kim meeting reflects a change in the nature of the relationship between Russia and North Korea, countries which have had a complicated relationship.
During the 1950-53 Korean War, the Soviet Union provided ammunition, warplanes and pilots to support communist North Korea’s invasion of the South, and the decades of Soviet sponsorship of the North that followed.
In what appears to mark a reversal, U.S. officials say Putin may ask for artillery and other ammunition for his war in Ukraine.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has told Russian President Vladimir Putin that his country offers its “full and unconditional support” for Russia’s “sacred fight” to defend its security interests, in an apparent reference to the war in Ukraine, and that Pyongyang will always stand with Moscow on the “anti-imperialist” front.
Kim also called North Korea’s relations with Russia “the first priority.” Putin in his opening remarks welcomed Kim to Russia and said he was glad to see him. Putin listed economic cooperation, humanitarian issues and the “situation in the region” among the agenda items for their talks.
The leaders met at the Vostochny Cosmodrome for a summit that underscores how their interests are aligning in the face of their countries’ separate, intensifying confrontations with the United States.
The U.S. warned that meeting could lead to a deal to supply ammunition for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
