Following the tradition started by his grandfather Kim Il Sung, and followed by his father Kim Jong Il, who was afraid of airplanes, yesterday the armored train that will carry the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, was launched on one of his few trips abroad. The journey is not very long, just 700 kilometers between the capital Pyongyang and Vladivostok, in Russia, where he will meet with the head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin. As is also tradition, the details of that meeting, which raises suspicions in the West, are secret.
As The New York Times reported a week ago, the two leaders could agree on a potential supply of North Korean ammunition that the Russian army could use against Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov declined to comment on that information. Yesterday he was also brief in explanations and limited himself to saying that Kim will arrive shortly on an official visit invited by Putin. The North Korean state news agency KCNA also reported the “early” visit.
Hours earlier, South Korean intelligence had detected that Kim's armored train was heading towards the border with Russia. According to South Korean television YTN and Russian newspaper RBK, Putin will receive Kim in Vladivostok tomorrow. The last time Kim went to that same city to meet with Putin, in April 2019, he undertook the same trip. It lasted 20 hours at low speed (50 kilometers per hour) due to its heavy armor protection.
It was Kim Jong Un's last trip abroad. Months later, the Covid pandemic broke out and Pyongyang closed its borders, only half-open this summer.
The North Korean leader's visit coincides with the Eastern Economic Forum, a platform created in 2015 to promote investments in the Russian Far East. Peskov has disconnected Kim's arrival from this event.
According to The New York Times, North Korea may make its weapons industry available to Russia in exchange for advanced technology for satellites and nuclear submarines. Nor should we forget food assistance, an endemic need in the Asian country. In fact, the last visit to Russia by Kim Jong Il, the father of the current leader, in his armored train, in August 2011, had the objective of obtaining 50,000 tons of grain from Russia in exchange for the country returning to international talks. about its nuclear program.
The United States last week urged Pyongyang “not to deliver weapons to Russia that can kill Ukrainians.” If he does, “he will pay,” warned Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor.
In 2019, disarmament negotiations with the US failed, the last attempt to get closer to one of the most closed regimes in the world. Now, in the growing polarization fueling the Ukrainian conflict, North Korea is moving closer to China and Russia.
In July, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited North Korea to participate in events marking the anniversary of the end of the Korean War. Voice of Korea radio reported that Kim and Shoigu reached a consensus on defense and national security issues.
