Seoul:

Laughing and joking, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un cruised around Pyongyang last week in a Russian-made Aurus limousine to showcase their strengthened anti-Western alliance.

The luxury sedan was intended to epitomize Russia’s domestic prowess and reduced dependence on imported technology and goods when unveiled in 2018.

But customs records show that the company that builds it uses millions of dollars in imported parts, many arriving in Russia from what Kim has described as his country’s “primary foe”, South Korea.

The imports point to Russia’s ongoing reliance on Western technology as it seeks to navigate Western attempts to cut it off from global supply chains as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine.

The two leaders took turns driving the armoured limousine during Putin’s pomp-filled visit, his first in nearly a quarter of a century to North Korea, in a demonstration of the two nuclear powers’ increasingly close ties.

Russia imported equipment and components worth at least $34 million between 2018 and 2023 for assembling Aurus cars and motorcycles, customs records seen by Reuters showed. Reuters does not have access to more recent data.

The imports included car body parts, sensors, programmable controllers, switches, welding equipment and other components worth almost $15.5 million imported from South Korea. Parts were also imported from China, India, Turkey, Italy and other EU countries.

Foreign supplies for Aurus kept coming after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with goods worth almost $16 million, including $5 million produced in South Korea, imported since February 2022, the records showed.

Reuters could not determine specifically which imported foreign parts ended up in the car gifted to Kim, and the imports were not in breach of sanctions – Aurus LLC was sanctioned by the United States in February, 2024.

The Aurus sedan was developed by Russian state-owned research institute NAMI in partnership with Russian carmaker Sollers, which has since sold its stake.

Aurus Motors and its CEO Andrey Pankov did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment on the use of foreign parts, including from South Korea, in its vehicles.

GROWING PRODUCTION

The company launched official production in Russia’s Tatarstan region, around 1,000 km (620 miles) from Moscow, in 2021 – before then it was made on a small, experimental scale at NAMI. It will start additional production in St Petersburg later this year at Toyota’s former factory.

Toyota is one of many foreign carmakers to exit the Russian market since the invasion, which Russia calls a “special military operation”.

The exodus has left a gap that Chinese producers have been quick to fill, rapidly seizing more than half the market share and exposing Russia’s limited domestic production capacity.

South Korean firms were among the largest suppliers to Aurus, including industrial equipment producer Kyungki Industrial Co, car body parts manufacturer BYT CO LTD and batteries supplier Enertech International Inc.

Italian plastic parts producer Industrie Ilpea Spa and Hong Kong company Rain Electronics also supplied goods.

Kyungki Industrial Co said in a statement to Reuters on Monday that it had not signed any contract with Aurus or Russian suppliers since 2021 or participated in any further projects in Russia since 2022. It also said that it would be concerned about any potential sanctions.

A company representative had earlier told Reuters the company continued to supply Aurus and was not concerned about potential sanctions. The representative later referred Reuters to Monday’s statement.

Rain Electronics could not be reached for comment. When a Reuters correspondent visited the address listed on the internet as the company’s office in Hong Kong, there was no trace of Rain Electronics on the floor listed online or in the office building.

BYT CO LTD, Enertech International and Industrie Ilpea Spa did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

The Aurus Senat, retro-styled after the Soviet-era ZIL limousine, is Russia’s official presidential car and was used by Putin at his presidential inaugurations in 2018 and 2024.

Putin has now given Kim, believed to be a keen automobile fan, two Aurus cars, first during Kim’s visit to Russia in February, and a slightly different model in North Korea in June.

Prices for Aurus cars – there are four models including an SUV and armoured version – start from 46.625 million roubles ($528,356). Customers include Turkmenistan President Serdar Berdymukhamedov.

Aurus sold 107 cars in Russia in 2023, according to data from Russian analytical agency Autostat. Aurus does not disclose production numbers.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The USS Theodore Roosevelt. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A nuclear-powered United States aircraft carrier arrived on June 22 in South Korea for a three-way exercise stepping up their military training to cope with North Korean threats that escalated with its alignment with Russia.

The arrival of the USS Theodore Roosevelt strike group in Busan came a day after South Korea summoned the Russian Ambassador to protest a pact reached between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this week that pledges mutual defence assistance in the event of war.

South Korea says the deal poses a threat to its security and warned that it could consider sending arms to Ukraine to help fight off the Russian invasion as a response — a move that would surely ruin its relations with Moscow.

Following a meeting between their defence chiefs in Singapore earlier in June, the United States, South Korea and Japan announced Freedom Edge. The new multidomain exercise is aimed at sharpening the countries’ combined response in various areas of operation, including air, sea and cyberspace.

The Theodore Roosevelt strike group will participate in the exercise that is expected to start within June. South Korea’s military didn’t immediately confirm specific details of the training.

South Korea’s navy said in a statement that the arrival of Theodore Roosevelt demonstrates the strong defence posture of the allies and “stern willingness to respond to advancing North Korean threats.” The carrier’s visit comes seven months after another U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, came to South Korea in a show of strength against the North.

The Theodore Roosevelt strike group also participated in a three-way exercise with South Korean and Japanese naval forces in April in the disputed East China Sea, where worries about China’s territorial claims are rising.

In the face of growing North Korean threats, the United States, South Korea and Japan have expanded their combined training and boosted the visibility of strategic U.S. military assets in the region, seeking to intimidate the North. The United States and South Korea have also been updating their nuclear deterrence strategies, with Seoul seeking stronger assurances that Washington would swiftly and decisively use its nuclear capabilities to defend its ally from a North Korean nuclear attack.

A TV screen shows a file image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang, during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, on June 21, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

With no obvious options, China appears to be keeping its distance as Russia and North Korea move closer to each other with a new defence pact that could tilt the balance of power among the three authoritarian states.

Experts say China’s leaders are likely fretting over the potential loss of influence over North Korea after its leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the deal this week, and how that could increase instability on the Korean Peninsula. But Beijing may also be struggling to come up with a response because of its conflicting goals: keeping peace in the Koreas while countering the U.S. and its Western allies on the global stage.

Beijing so far has not commented on the deal — which requires both countries to provide defence assistance if the other is attacked — and only reiterated boilerplate statements that it seeks to uphold peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and advance a political settlement of the North-South divide.

The Chinese response has been “very weak,” said Victor Cha, senior vice president for Asia and Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, adding that it could be a sign that Beijing doesn’t yet know what to do.

“Every option is a bad option,” he said. “You’re either unable to make a decision because of very strongly held competing views or … you’re just incapable of making a decision because you just don’t know how to evaluate the situation.”

What’s behind the Russia-North Korea security pact? | Explained

Some in Beijing may welcome the Russia-North Korea partnership as a way of pushing back at America’s dominance in world affairs, but Mr. Cha said that “there is also a great deal of discomfort” in China, which doesn’t want to lose its sway over its neighbour to Russia, doesn’t want to see a destabilizing nuclear power on its doorstep, and doesn’t want to bring the conflict in Europe to Asia.

But China isn’t raising these concerns publicly. “They don’t want to push Kim Jong Un further into the arms of Vladimir Putin,” Mr. Cha said, referring to the leaders of the two countries.

Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, declined to comment on the new agreement. “The cooperation between Russia and the DPRK is a matter between two sovereign states. We do not have information on the relevant matter,” he said, referring to North Korea by the initials for its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

John Kirby, the White House national security spokesman, told reporters that the pact between Russia and North Korea “should be of concern to any country that believes that the U.N. Security Council resolutions ought to be abided by.” The Security Council has imposed sanctions on North Korea to try to stop its development of nuclear weapons.

Mr. Kirby also said the agreement “should be of concern to anybody who thinks that supporting the people of Ukraine is an important thing to do. And we would think that that concern would be shared by the People’s Republic of China.”

One area that China could be concerned about is whether Russia will help North Korea’s weapons program by sharing advanced technology, said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.

“If China is indeed concerned, it has leverage in both Russia and North Korea and it could probably try to put some limitations to that relationship,” he said.

The meeting between Putin and Kim this week was the latest chapter in decades of complicated political and military relationships in East Asia, where the Chinese Communist Party, once an underdog, has emerged as a leading power that wields influence over both North Korea and Russia.

That and other developments have raised alarms in the U.S. that Beijing, now the world’s second-largest economy, could challenge the U.S.-led world order by aligning itself with countries such as Russia, North Korea and Iran. Beijing has rejected that allegation.

Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, said Beijing doesn’t want to form a three-way alliance with North Korea and Russia, because it “needs to keep its options open.”

Such a coalition could mean a new Cold War, something Beijing says it is determined to avoid, and locking itself to Pyongyang and Moscow would be contrary to China’s goals of maintaining relationships with Europe and improving ties with Japan and South Korea, she said.

Ms. Sun added that the rapprochement between North Korea and Moscow “opens up possibilities and potentials of uncertainty, but based on what has happened so far, I don’t think that China’s national interests have been undercut by this.”

Closer ties between Putin and Kim could weaken Beijing’s sway and leave it as the “biggest loser,” said Danny Russel, who was the top U.S. diplomat for Asia in the Obama administration.

“Apart from irritation over Putin’s intrusion into what most Chinese consider their sphere of influence, the real cost to China is that Russia’s embrace gives North Korea greater impunity and room to maneuver without consideration to Beijing’s interests,” he said.

Russel, now vice president for international security and diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said that Kim is eager to reduce his country’s dependence on China.

“The dilution of Chinese leverage means Kim Jong Un can disregard Beijing’s calls for restraint,” he said, “and that is much more likely to create chaos at a time when (Chinese leader) Xi Jinping desperately wants stability.”

A TV screen shows an image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin during a news program, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, on June 19, 2024. North Korean leader Kim promised full support for Russia’s war in Ukraine before beginning a one-on-one meeting with Russian President Putin in Pyongyang on Wednesday, in a bid to expand their economic and military cooperation and show a united front against Washington.
| Photo Credit: AP

South Korea said on June 20 that it would consider sending arms to Ukraine, a major policy change suggested after Russia and North Korea rattled the region and beyond by signing a pact to come to each other’s defense in the event of war.

The comments from a senior presidential official came hours after North Korea’s state media released the details of the agreement, which observers said could mark the strongest connection between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War. It comes at a time when Russia faces growing isolation over its war in Ukraine and both countries face escalating standoffs with the West.

According to the text of the deal published by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, if either country gets invaded and is pushed into a state of war, the other must deploy “all means at its disposal without delay” to provide “military and other assistance.” But the agreement also says that such actions must be in accordance with the laws of both countries and Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which recognizes a U.N. member state’s right to self-defense.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the pact at a summit on June 19 in Pyongyang. Both described it as a major upgrade of bilateral relations, covering security, trade, investment, cultural and humanitarian ties.

The office of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol issued a statement condemning the agreement, calling it a threat to the South’s security and a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, and warned that it would have negative consequences on Seoul’s relations with Moscow.

“It’s absurd that two parties with a history of launching wars of invasion — the Korean War and the war in Ukraine — are now vowing mutual military cooperation on the premise of a preemptive attack by the international community that will never happen,” Mr. Yoon’s office said.

Mr. Yoon’s national security adviser, Chang Ho-jin, said Seoul would reconsider the issue of providing arms to Ukraine to help the country fight off Russia’s invasion.

South Korea, a growing arms exporter with a well-equipped military backed by the United States, has provided humanitarian aid and other support to Ukraine while joining U.S.-led economic sanctions against Moscow. But it has not directly provided arms to Kyiv, citing a longstanding policy of not supplying weapons to countries actively engaged in conflict.

The summit between Kim and Putin came as the U.S. and its allies expressed growing concern over a possible arms arrangement in which Pyongyang provides Moscow with badly needed munitions for its war in Ukraine, in exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers that could enhance the threat posed by Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile program.

Following their summit, Mr. Kim said the two countries had a “fiery friendship,” and that the deal was their “strongest-ever treaty,” putting the relationship at the level of an alliance. He vowed full support for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Mr. Putin called it a “breakthrough document” reflecting shared desires to move relations to a higher level.

North Korea and the former Soviet Union signed a treaty in 1961, which experts say necessitated Moscow’s military intervention if the North came under attack. The deal was discarded after the collapse of the USSR, replaced by one in 2000 that offered weaker security assurances.

There’s ongoing debate on how strong of a security commitment the deal entails. While some analysts see the agreement as a full restoration of the countries’ Cold War-era alliance, others say the deal seems more symbolic than substantial.

Ankit Panda, a senior analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the text appeared to be carefully worded as to not imply automatic military invention.

But “the big picture here is that both sides are willing to put down on paper, and show the world, just how widely they intend to expand the scope of their cooperation,” he said.

The deal was made as Mr. Putin visited North Korea for the first time in 24 years, a trip that showcased their personal and geopolitical ties with Kim hugging Putin twice at the airport, their motorcade rolling past giant Russian flags and Putin portraits, and a welcoming ceremony at Pyongyang’s main square attended by what appeared to be tens of thousands of spectators.

According to KCNA, the agreement also states that Pyongyang and Moscow must not enter into agreements with third parties if they infringe on the “core interests” of any of them and must not participate in actions that threaten those interests.

KCNA said the agreement requires the countries to take steps to prepare joint measures for the purpose of strengthening their defense capabilities to prevent war and protect regional and global peace and security. The agency didn’t specify what those steps are, or whether they would include combined military training and other cooperation.

The agreement also calls for the countries to actively cooperate in efforts to establish a “just and multipolar new world order,” KCNA said, underscoring how the countries are aligning in face of their separate confrontations with the United States.

How the pact affects Russia’s relations with the South is a key development to watch, said Jenny Town, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington and director of the North Korea-focused 38 North website.

“Seoul had already signed onto sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, souring its relations with Moscow. Now with any ambiguity of Russia’s partnership with North Korea removed, how will Seoul respond?” she said. “Is there a point where it decides to cut or suspend diplomatic ties with Russia or expel its ambassador? And have we reached it?”

Mr. Kim in recent months has made Russia his priority as he pushes a foreign policy aimed at expanding relations with countries confronting Washington, embracing the idea of a “new Cold War” and trying to display a united front in Putin’s broader conflicts with the West.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest point in years, with the pace of both Mr. Kim’s weapons tests and combined military exercises involving the U.S., South Korea and Japan intensifying in a tit-for-tat cycle.

The Koreas also have engaged in Cold War-style psychological warfare that involved North Korea dropping tons of trash on the South with balloons, and the South broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda with its loudspeakers.

Seoul:

North Korea’s state media on Thursday unveiled the full text of a mutual defence pact signed a day ago by its leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which Kim said would elevate bilateral ties to something akin to an “alliance”.

Formally named “Treaty on the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership”, the pact takes effect upon ratification unless either side suspends it.

Here are some key points of the agreement:

– Develop a permanent partnership based on the principles of mutual respect for national sovereignty, non-aggression on territory, non-interference in internal affairs and equality, as well as other international legal principles.

– Aim for global strategic stability and a fair and equal new international order, and strengthen strategic and tactical cooperation.

– Activate communication channels without delay if either side faces a direct threat of potential armed aggression.

– Immediately provide military and other assistance using all available means if either side is in a state of war, in line with Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, which covers the individual or collective right of states to self-defence against armed attack.

– Not sign any treaty with a third country that infringes on the other side’s core interests, or allow territories to be used by a third country seeking to violate the other’s security and sovereignty.

– Support peace-loving policies to protect sovereignty, security and stability, and actively cooperate in building a just and multipolar new world order.

– Cooperate at the U.N. and other international organisations on issues of mutual interest and security, and support each other’s accession to relevant entities.

– Prepare measures to take joint actions to strengthen defence capabilities with the aim of preventing war and ensuring regional and international peace and security.

– Work together to tackle challenges and threats on the areas of strategic significance, including food, energy security, information and communication technology, climate change, health and supply chains.

– Expand cooperation in trade, economy, investment and science and technology, support both sides’ special or free economic zones, and develop exchanges and joint research in science and technology, including space, biology, peaceful use of nuclear energy, artificial intelligence and information technology.

– Support regional and cross-border cooperation, and create favourable conditions for establishing direct economic and trade links between both sides’ border regions, such as by forming business bodies and holding forums and exhibitions.

– Strengthen exchanges in agriculture, education, health, sports, culture and tourism, and seek cooperation in environmental protection, natural disaster prevention and elimination of their consequences.

– Promote mutual recognition of product standards, test records and quality certificates, and develop expert training and exchanges of test results.

– Protect the legal rights and interests of the other party’s legal entities and citizens, and cooperate in providing legal assistance, extradition and transfer of persons, as well as returning assets obtained through criminal methods.

– Deepen exchanges of legislative and law enforcement institutions.

– Oppose unilateral coercive measures targeting each side as illegal and in violation of the U.N. Charter and international legal norms, and coordinate efforts to block them.

– Work together to tackle challenges and threats in the areas of international terrorism, extremism, transnational organised crimes, human trafficking, hostage-taking, illegal immigration, illegal flows of funds, money laundering, financing for dissemination of weapons of mass destruction, illegal acts that pose a threat to the safety of civil aviation and maritime navigation, and production and distribution of drugs and psychotropic products.

– Promote cooperation on information security, advocate equal rights in managing information and communication networks, and oppose the misuse of such technologies to tarnish the dignity and image of sovereign countries and infringe on their rights.

– Promote cooperation in the field of public affairs and publication, and encourage the dissemination of each other’s literature.

– Supply objective information about each other, and work together to combat false information and provocative propaganda activities.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un walk during a farewell ceremony upon Mr. Putin’s departure at an airport in Pyongyang, North Korea June 19, 2024.
| Photo Credit: via Reuters

A new agreement between Russia and North Korea reached by their leaders requires the countries to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance in the event of war, North Korean state media said.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency on Thursday reported the language of the comprehensive strategic partnership agreement reached by its leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang on Wednesday. The agency said Article 4 of the agreement states that if one of the countries gets invaded and is pushed into a state of war, the other must deploy “all means at its disposal without delay” to provide “military and other assistance”.

The deal could mark the strongest connection between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War. Both Mr. Kim and Mr. Putin described it as a major upgrade of their relations, covering security, trade, investment, cultural and humanitarian ties.

The summit came as the U.S. and its allies expressed growing concerns over a possible arms arrangement in which Pyongyang provides Moscow with badly needed munitions for its war in Ukraine, in exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers that could enhance the threat posed by Mr. Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile programme.

Following their summit, Mr. Kim said the two countries had a “fiery friendship”, and that the deal was their “strongest-ever treaty”, putting the relationship at the level of an alliance. He vowed full support for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Mr. Putin called it a “breakthrough document” reflecting shared desires to move relations to a higher level.

North Korea and the former Soviet Union signed a treaty in 1961, which experts say necessitated Moscow’s military intervention if the North came under attack. The deal was discarded after the collapse of the USSR, replaced by one in 2000 that offered weaker security assurances.

South Korean officials said they were still interpreting the results of the summit, including what Russia’s response might be if the North comes under attack, and whether the new deal promises a similar level of protection with the 1961 treaty. South Korean officials didn’t immediately comment on the North Korean report about the details of the deal.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest point in years, with the pace of both Kim’s weapons tests and combined military exercises involving the US, South Korea and Japan intensifying in a tit-for-tat cycle.

The Koreas also have engaged in Cold War-style psychological warfare that involved North Korea dropping tons of trash on the South with balloons, and the South broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda with its loudspeakers.

Moscow:

A strategic partnership pact signed by the leaders of Russia and North Korea on Wednesday includes a mutual defence clause under which each country agrees to help the other repel external aggression, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

“The comprehensive partnership agreement signed today provides, among other things, for mutual assistance in the event of aggression against one of the parties to this agreement,” Putin was quoted as saying by state news agency TASS.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Seoul:

Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held a summit meeting on Wednesday after a grand welcome ceremony at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, Russian media said, as they pledged to develop their nations’ ties.

An honour guard including mounted soldiers, and a large crowd of civilians gathered at the square by the Taedong River running through the capital. The scene included children holding balloons, and giant portraits of the two leaders with national flags adorning the Grand People’s Study Hall.

Kim and Putin then rode to the Kumsusan Palace for summit talks, Russian media said.

“We highly appreciate your consistent and unwavering support for Russian policy, including in the Ukrainian direction,” Russian state news agency RIA quoted Putin as saying at the start of the talks with Kim.

Putin said Moscow is fighting the hegemonic, imperialist policy of the United States and its allies, Russian media reported.

Putin arrived at Pyongyang’s airport early Wednesday. After Kim welcomed him with an embrace, the two shared “pent-up inmost thoughts” on the ride to the state guest house in Pyongyang, North Korean state media said.

Putin is on his first trip to the North Korean capital in 24 years, a visit likely to reshape decades of Russia-North Korea relations at a time when both countries face international isolation.

The countries’ partnership is an “engine for accelerating the building of a new multi-polar world” and Putin’s visit demonstrates the invincibility and durability of their friendship and unity, North Korea’s state news agency KCNA said.

Russia has used its warming ties with North Korea to needle Washington, while heavily sanctioned North Korea has won political backing and promises of economic support and trade from Moscow.

The United States and its allies say they fear Russia could provide aid for North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs, which are banned by U.N. Security Council resolutions, and have accused Pyongyang of providing ballistic missiles and artillery shells that Russia has used in its war in Ukraine.

Moscow and Pyongyang have denied weapons transfers.

Kim greeted Putin, shaking hands, embracing and talking beside the Russian leader’s plane. The pair then rode in Putin’s Russian-made Aurus limousine to the Kumsusan State Guest House.

Likely given the hour, the welcome was a relatively subdued affair, with Kim greeting the Russian leader on the red carpet without the grand ceremony the North put on for Chinese President Xi Jinping on his 2019 visit.

“Passing through charmingly lit streets of Pyongyang at night, the top leaders exchanged their pent-up inmost thoughts and opened their minds to more surely develop the DPRK-Russia relations,” KCNA reported, using the initials of North Korea’s official name.

State media photos showed streets of Pyongyang lined with portraits of Putin and the facade of the unfinished and vacant 101-story pyramid-shaped Ryugyong Hotel brightly lit with a giant message “Welcome Putin.”

‘ALTERNATE TRADE MECHANISM’

Wednesday’s agenda includes one-on-one discussions between the two leaders, as well as a gala concert, state reception, honour guards, document signings and a statement to the media, Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov as saying.

In a signal that Russia, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, is reassessing its approach to North Korea, Putin praised Pyongyang ahead of his arrival for resisting what he said was U.S. economic pressure, blackmail and threats.

In an article on the front page of North Korea’s main ruling party newspaper, he promised to “develop alternative trade and mutual settlement mechanisms not controlled by the West” and “build an equal and indivisible security architecture in Eurasia.”

Putin’s article implies that there is an opportunity for North Korea’s economic growth within an anti-West economic bloc led by Russia, which is a message that is likely appealing to Kim Jong Un, wrote Rachel Minyoung Lee, an analyst with the 38 North programme in Washington.

“If Pyongyang views Russia as a viable longer-term partner for improving its economy – as irrational as this may seem to some – there is even less of an incentive for it to try to improve relations with the United States,” she said in a report.

Putin also issued a presidential order on the eve of the visit saying Moscow was looking to sign a “comprehensive strategic partnership treaty” with North Korea. Ushakov said it would include security issues.

Ushakov said the deal would not be directed against any other country, but would “outline prospects for further cooperation”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the Academy of Defence Sciences in Pyongyang, North Korea.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the ability to conduct space reconnaissance is crucial for national self-defence and protection of the country’s sovereignty and North Korea will never give up efforts to possess it, state media said on Wednesday.

North Korea’s attempt to launch a spy satellite on Monday failed after the first stage booster exploded in flight.

Kim made the remarks during his visit to the country’s Academy of Defence Sciences, KCNA news agency said.

“Possessing military reconnaissance satellites is a crucial task to strengthen national self-defence deterrence and protect national sovereignty and security from potential threats … due to U.S. military acts and provocations,” he said.

Kim assailed South Korea for criticising the satellite launch and said Seoul was “playing with fire” by putting on a show of force and conducting drills involving fighter jets.

Seoul:

 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the ability to conduct space reconnaissance is crucial for national self defence and protection of the country’s sovereignty and North Korea will never give up efforts to possess it, state media said on Wednesday.

North Korea’s attempt to launch a spy satellite on Monday failed after the first stage booster exploded in flight.

Kim made the remarks during his visit to the country’s Academy of Defence Sciences, KCNA news agency said.

“Possessing military reconnaissance satellites is a crucial task to strengthen national self-defence deterrence and protect national sovereignty and security from potential threats … due to U.S. military acts and provocations,” he said.

Kim assailed South Korea for criticising the satellite launch and said Seoul was “playing with fire” by putting on a show of force and conducting drills involving fighter jets.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)