Putin vows trade and security with North Korea to remain free from Western influence – Euractiv

Vladimir Putin pledged to establish a trade and security system with North Korea that is not controlled by the West and pledged unwavering support in a letter published on Tuesday (June 18) through North Korean state media ahead of a planned visit to North Korea.

In a letter published in Rodong Sinmun, the mouthpiece of North Korea’s ruling party, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that over the past 70 years, the two countries have developed good relations and partnership based on equality, mutual respect and trust.

“We will develop alternative trade and mutual settlement mechanisms that are not controlled by the West and jointly resist illegal unilateral restrictions,” Putin wrote. “At the same time, we will create an equal and indivisible security architecture in Eurasia.”

He thanked North Korea for supporting what Russia called its extraordinary military campaign in Ukraine and vowed to back Pyongyang’s efforts to defend its interests despite what he called “U.S. pressure, blackmail and military threats.”

The article was published a day after the two countries announced that Putin would begin a two-day visit to North Korea on Tuesday, his first trip to the country in 24 years.

Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said Russia and North Korea could sign a partnership agreement including on security issues during the visit.

He said the agreement would not be directed against any other country but would “outline the prospects for further cooperation and would be signed taking into account what has happened in recent years between our two countries in the international political sphere, in the economic sphere … and, of course, in terms of security.”

The delegation will include Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the ministers of natural resources, health, transport, the heads of Roscosmos and railways, and Putin’s energy czar, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak.

Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters the visit will include one-on-one talks between the two leaders, a grand concert, a state banquet, a guard of honor, the signing of documents and statements to the media, Interfax news agency reported.

Commercial satellite imagery shows North Korea appears to be preparing for a possible military parade in central Pyongyang ahead of Kim Jong Un’s visit.

U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller on Monday reiterated North Korea’s accusation that it has provided Russia with “dozens of ballistic missiles and more than 11,000 containers of ammunition” for use in Ukraine.

He said the United States has seen Putin “get extremely desperate over the last few months” and wants Iran and North Korea to replace equipment lost on the battlefield.

Both Moscow and Pyongyang deny transferring arms.

UN experts say North Korean missile landed in Kharkiv, Ukraine

A missile fragment that fell on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on January 2 came from North Korea’s Hwasong-11 series of ballistic missiles, UN sanctions monitors told a Security Council committee in a report seen by Reuters on Monday (April 29).

Victor Cha, a former U.S. national security official and current director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the summit posed the greatest threat to U.S. national security since the Korean War.

“This historic relationship, reinvigorated by the war in Ukraine, undermines security in Europe, Asia, and the U.S. homeland,” he wrote in a note Monday.

He called on Washington to work with Europe and other partners to increase economic and diplomatic pressure on Pyongyang, engage China and launch a massive human rights and information campaign with extensive outside media coverage of North Korea.

North Korea, formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), has been under UN sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes, measures that have been tightened over the years.

The Security Council has been divided over the past few years on how to deal with Pyongyang. Russia and China have said further sanctions are not helping and want to ease such measures. They proposed lifting some sanctions in December 2019, but never brought a draft resolution to a vote.

In May 2022, the two countries vetoed a U.S.-led push for more UN sanctions on North Korea following another launch of a ballistic missile. In March, Russia vetoed a proposal to renew the panel of experts that monitors the implementation of UN sanctions.

China and Russia say joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises have angered Pyongyang, while Washington has accused Beijing and Moscow of emboldening North Korea by shielding it from more sanctions.

After North Korea, Putin will visit Vietnam from June 19 to 20.

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