North Korea and Russia agree on deepening economic cooperation

2024-11-21 09:09:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

North Korea and Russia have reached a new agreement to expand economic cooperation after high-level talks in Pyongyang this week, the North's state news agency said on Thursday.

The North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) gave no details about the agreement signed Wednesday between the North's top trade officials and a Russian delegation led by Alexandr Kozlov, who is Russia's minister of ecology and natural resources.

Russian news agency TASS reported on Tuesday that officials agreed to increase the number of charter flights between the two countries to promote tourism.

Kozlov, who arrived in North Korea on Sunday, met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his top economic official, Prime Minister Kim Tok Hun, before returning home on Wednesday, KCNA reported.

During Kozlov's visit, Russian President Vladimir Putin donated more than 70 animals to Pyongyang's Central Zoo, including lions, bears and several species of birds, according to TASS, showing new signs that relations between the two countries are continuing to grow. grow up

In recent months, Kim Jong Un has prioritized relations with Moscow in an effort to break out of international isolation and strengthen his own position, consistently supporting Putin's war in Ukraine while portraying North Korea as a participant. in a united front against Washington.

Kim has yet to directly admit to supplying Russia with military equipment and troops to support its war against Ukraine.

In a closed-door session of Parliament, South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) said on Wednesday that in late October some 11,000 North Korean soldiers moved into Russia's Kursk region - where Ukrainian troops have taken over parts of territory this year – after initially training in north-east Russia.

The US, Ukraine and other countries have similar estimates of the number of North Korean soldiers in Russia.

Nis believes that North Korean soldiers have enlisted in Russian forces units and some of them have already fought alongside the Russians, according to lawmaker Lee Seong Kweun, who attended the hearing.

According to a recent study by Lim Soo-ho, a South Korean analyst at a think tank run by the National Intelligence Service (NIS).

While this would be an important source of revenue for North Korea's battered and heavily sanctioned economy, the profit could be lower than what the North earns from illegal coal exports or from supplying military equipment to Russia , Lim said.

This suggests that North Korea's troop deployment has less to do with money and more to do with obtaining important Russian technologies to further its nuclear and missile programs, which is a major concern in Seoul, Lim said.

Kim has increased pressure on South Korea, abandoning his country's long-standing goal of inter-Korean reconciliation and verbally threatening nuclear strikes on the South if provoked.

He has used Russia's war in Ukraine as a distraction to accelerate the development of his nuclear-armed military, which now possesses various nuclear weapons systems and intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of hitting the US.