Kim Jong-un expresses support for Russia in meeting with Putin
North Korea is capable of supplying “good quality” weaponry to Russia, to support its war in Ukraine, an analyst has said.
But he suggested China will be watching the situation – and any potential arms deal – very closely. And he suggested this could cause divisions between Kim Jong Un and his ‘paymasters’ in Beijing.
It comes as North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un vowed to support Russia’s “just fight” during a summit with President Vladimir Putin. The US has warned the summit could lead to a deal to supply ammunition for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Read more… Putin and Kim Jong Un’s terrifying warning to West as North Korea vows support
After touring launch pads with Putin at a remote space base in Russia’s far east, Kim expressed “full and unconditional support” and said Pyongyang will always stand with Moscow on the “anti-imperialist” front. 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.
Downing Street has claimed Putin’s isolation on the world stage has left him needing to find an ally in fellow pariah Kim. But Rishi Sunak’s official spokesman said: “We urge DPRK (North Korea) to cease its arms negotiations with Russia and to abide by public commitments Pyongyang has made not to sell arms to Russia.”
And now an analyst has claimed that Kim could supply Putin’s regime with “good quality ammunition” – but said China will watching very closely.
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Aidan Foster-Carter, a researcher in sociology and modern Korea at Leeds University, said Kim and Putin both have something the other wanted. He said Russia needed artillery shells and he was “betting” that Kim needed money, food and cheap oil.
Foster-Carter told Sky News that Kim’s North Korea is a “highly militarised state” that focused on producing weaponry. “They probably can supply good quality ammunitions,” he said.
However, Foster-Carter, said there was a question bigger than what Putin and Kim are plotting – and that is what Beijing thinks about the blossoming friendship.
He said: “Russia and North Korea haven’t been that close. Russia gives North Korea hardly anything for historical reasons.
“China is the state that bankrolls North Korea. Xi Jinping, who pays Kim Jong Un’s bills, may wonder why the first visit that Kim has chosen to make after the pandemic isn’t to him and China, so it will be interesting to watch that.”
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However, senior officials from Russia and China met in North Korea earlier this summer – and viewed deadly new nuclear weapons that reportedly have the range to strike targets anywhere in the United States. Washington was said to be “incredibly concerned” about ties between Moscow and Pyongyang.
China’s presence stoked fears that the rogue trio had formed a new horror alliance. Political experts have said the alliance is a major cause for concern – and will have “huge consequences”.
With regards to Ukraine, back in the Spring, Xi Jinping spoke with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the first time since Russia’s invasion. Xi praised Beijing’s relationship with Kyiv – and claimed that China will “continue to facilitate talks for peace”.
Nonetheless, politicians on both sides of the Atlantic view China with suspicion. In the US, Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley recently claimed China was an “enemy” that “has been preparing for war” with the United States for “decades”.
And, in the UK, Home Secretary Suella Braverman is said to be pushing for China to be relabelled as a threat to Britain’s safety and interests under new national security laws.
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