Kim Jong Un’s heavily armoured private train has entered Russia, prior to an anticipated and closely watched summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin that the US has warned could end in an arms sale, and the North Korean leader has met with officials. According to Russian state media agency TASS, Kim temporarily left his state on Tuesday to board a train at the Khasan train station in the country’s far east, where he was welcomed by the governor of the Russian region that borders his secrecy state and the country’s minister of natural resources, Alexander Kozlov.
The defence ministry of South Korea stated that they thought the North Korean supreme leader reached Russia early on Tuesday AM local time. The Kim of North Korea is anticipated to continue his journey in order to meet with Putin elsewhere in Russia’s far east. Analysts claim the it would be a big event since it would bring together two world leaders who are becoming more and more distant from one another.
With its military battered after more than 18 months of fighting in Ukraine, Russia is in desperate need of new ammunition and shells, while North Korea, which has been subject to years of international sanctions because of its nuclear weapons programme, is lacking in everything from hard currency and food to missile technology. The summit might result in Pyongyang obtaining the kinds of weapons that United Nations sanctions have prevented it from obtaining for the past two decades, particularly for its nuclear-capable ballistic missile programme.
Russia is looking for new sources of weapons to employ in its conflict with Ukraine, and the US government stated last week that negotiations regarding arms sales between North Korea and Russia are “actively advancing.” As a result, more negotiations may take place. Speaking on behalf of the South Korean Defence Ministry, Jeon Ha-kyu stated on Tuesday that the department is closely monitoring whether talks on a weapons purchase and technology transfer between North Korea and Russia will continue.
North Korean news agency KCNA stated on Tuesday that the country’s leader left Pyongyang’s capital on Sunday afternoon with senior party leaders, representatives of the executive branch, and military personnel. According to images released by North Korean state media KCNA, Kim’s team includes senior military figures as well as the country’s top diplomat.
Ri Pyong Chol, Kim’s military deputy, may be seen boarding the train in one of the KCNA images. As the former head of the Department of the Munitions Industry, Ri is a target of US and UN sanctions because of his involvement in overseeing the nation’s ballistic missile programmes. Kim was seen boarding the green train and strolling down a red carpet at a Pyongyang stop in earlier KCNA photos. Onlookers could be seen cheering and waving flags in the background.
Neither nation has provided information about the visit’s timing or location. According to Russian official media TASS, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters, “At this point we are not saying, in the Far East,” later adding that the two leaders would meet in “the next few days.” According to Peskov, the meeting will prioritise fostering bilateral ties between the two countries and will be a “full-blown visit, with talks between the two delegations.”
Peskov noted that the discussions will also cover “sensitive areas,” and a formal supper will be held in honour of Kim’s visit. The Far East region of Russia is a sizable area of land that borders China, North Korea, and Mongolia. According to various local reports in Vladivostok, the train thought to be carrying Kim appears to be travelling more north than the eastern port of Vladivostok, instead heading towards the province of Khabarovsk, which borders China.
Putin spoke at the Eastern Economic Forum on Tuesday in Vladivostok, praising the potential for trade between Russia and the Asia-Pacific region. In just the first half of this year, the commerce between Russia and the neighbouring nations increased by 18.3 percent, he claimed. “Trade will continue to grow with countries in the Asia Pacific region.” According to Russian official media outlets, Putin met with China’s Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing outside of the forum and stated that the two nations’ relations had reached a “unprecedented historical level.”
Kim's first trip abroad
It is Kim’s first journey outside of North Korea since the Covid-19 epidemic, when the country’s borders were closed, and it represents a rare foreign excursion for the ruler of one of the world’s most remote countries. Since coming to power in 2011, Kim has only travelled abroad ten times, all of which occurred in 2018 and 2019. These trips coincided with the North Korean leader’s involvement in negotiations about the country’s nuclear and missile programmes.
In the midst of the ongoing and unresolved issue over North Korea’s nuclear programme and the unsuccessful dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington, Kim last travelled to Russia in April 2019 on a trip to Vladivostok, where he had his first encounter with Putin. The North Korean leader travelled to Russia on Tuesday on his renowned, distinctively green train, which has come to represent the hermit nation’s seclusion and mystery. Like his father and grandparents, Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung, Kim is known to love taking the opulent armoured train, which has long been the focus of mystery.
Warning from Washington
After Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visited Pyongyang in July in an effort to persuade it to sell artillery munitions to Moscow, Washington issued a warning about what might be presented during a potential Kim-Putin meeting. North Korea will “pay a price” if it signs an arms deal with Russia, the White House’s national security advisor Jake Sullivan said last Tuesday, without going into further detail about the potential consequences. The White House again encouraged North Korea on Monday “not to provide or sell arms to Russia.”
Arms talks between Russia and the DPRK are anticipated to continue during Kim Jong Un’s visit to Russia, as the National Security Council has previously warned the public. United Nations and US sanctions against North Korea have already been put in place as a result of Pyongyang’s nuclear programme. Kim has been rapidly expanding his ballistic missile programme for the past two years despite the UN sanctions. He has tested a large number of missiles throughout that time, including ICBMs that could theoretically deliver a nuclear payload over the US mainland.
However, there are still questions regarding the country’s capabilities. Analysts said it would be a boost for Kim’s programmes and a major source of concern for Western leaders if he were to obtain technology from Russia, which has long been a global leader in nuclear missile weapons. Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, told CNN prior to the meeting that a one-on-one encounter between Kim and Putin would be a “very significant development.” According to Easley, Russia has the military technology that Kim desires for his nefarious satellite launch and nuclear weapon delivery plans.
Moscow, for its part, is in dire need of ammunition and small weaponry on the front lines in Ukraine, places where analysts claim North Korea has substantial production capabilities. Former head of operations at the Joint Intelligence Centre of the US Pacific Command Carl Schuster claimed that North Korea “makes good what I call heavy industrial weapons.” It has excellent artillery and ammunition. It closely resembles Russian patterns. Other analysts, however, have claimed that Russian ammunition from North Korea wouldn’t fundamentally alter the situation in Ukraine.
According to research associate for defence and military studies at the International Institute for Strategic Studies Joseph Dempsey, “These [arms] could help replenish depleted stocks and prolong the conflict but are not going to change its direction.” In September 2022, when news of North Korean weaponry sales to Russia surfaced, a representative of the North Korean Defence Ministry declared that Pyongyang had “never exported weapons or ammunition to Russia before and we will not plan to export them.”