Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to touch down on Tuesday night for his first trip to the isolated nation in 24 years, with a confrontation between North and South Korean troops on their shared border highlighting regional security tensions.
Ahead of his visit, Putin hailed North Korea for “firmly supporting” Moscow’s war in Ukraine ahead of a visit to Pyongyang set to boost defence ties between the two nuclear-armed countries.
Moscow and Pyongyang have been allies since North Korea’s founding after World War II, and they have drawn even closer since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 that led to the West isolating Putin internationally.
The United States and its allies have accused North Korea of supplying Russia with much-needed arms, including ballistic missiles to use in Ukraine.
The North has denied giving Russia military hardware but, ahead of his trip, Putin thanked Kim Jong Un’s government for helping the war effort.
‘Lonely bromance’
“We highly appreciate that the DPRK (North Korea) is firmly supporting the special military operations of Russia being conducted in Ukraine,” Putin wrote in an article published by Pyongyang’s state media on Tuesday.
Russia and the North are “now actively developing the many-sided partnership,” Putin wrote.
The trip will elevate ties to a “higher level” the Russian leader wrote, adding it would help develop “equal cooperation” between the two allies.
Both countries are under rafts on UN sanctions — Pyongyang since 2006 over banned nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine.
North Korea is eager for high-end military technology to advance its nuclear, missile, satellite and nuclear-powered submarine programs, according to experts.
Read more
The North could promise “to provide Russia with continuing supplies of artillery, guided rockets for multiple rocket launchers, and short-range missiles to support Russia’s operations in Ukraine,” Bruce Bennett, senior defence analyst at RAND Corp. told Yonhap.
In return, it will want “Russia to provide a variety of advanced technologies,” he said, plus “a substantial flow of Russian oil and food products along with hard currency payments.”
Russian state media also flagged that Putin could seek to offer the North further support on beating US-led sanctions.
Border incidents
Ahead of Putin’s visit, dozens of North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the heavily fortified border Tuesday but retreated after warning shots were fired, Seoul said, the second such incident in two weeks as Pyongyang reinforces its frontiers with the South.
Landmine explosions near the border also injured multiple North Korean soldiers, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, adding that Pyongyang had recently deployed troops in the area to clear scrub and lay mines, as relations between the two Koreas plummet.
The countries technically remain at war as the 1950-1953 conflict ended in an armistice, and the Demilitarized Zone dividing the peninsula is already one of the most heavily mined places on earth.
But North Korea is moving to reinforce that, laying more landmines, reinforcing tactical roads and adding what appear to be anti-tank barriers, Seoul’s military said.
The JCS said it believed the Tuesday crossing — like a previous one on June 9 — was accidental, with some 20 to 30 North Korean soldiers carrying work tools involved in the incident, which took place around 8:30 am Tuesday (23:30 GMT).
“Dozens of North Korean troops crossed the Military Demarcation Line today… (and) retreated northwards after warning shots were fired,” a JCS official said.
North Korean soldiers tasked with reinforcing the border had suffered “multiple casualties from repeated landmine explosion incidents, but they appear to be recklessly pressing ahead with the operations,” the official said.
“North Korea’s activities seem to be a measure to strengthen internal control, such as blocking North Korean troops and North Koreans from defecting to the South,” the JCS official said.
Cat Barton, with AFP
