Following the tradition started by his grandfather Kim Il-sung, and followed by his father Kim Jong-il, who was afraid of airplanes, yesterday he started the armored train that will carry the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, in one of his rare 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 tradition, the details of this 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 in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on this information. Yesterday he was also austere in his explanations and limited himself to saying that Kim will arrive very soon on an official visit invited by Putin. North Korea's state news agency KCNA also reported the "quick" visit.
Hours earlier, South Korean intelligence had detected Kim's armored train headed for the border with Russia. According to South Korean television YTN and Russian newspaper RBK, Putin will receive Kim in Vladivostok tomorrow, Wednesday. The last time Kim traveled to this same city to meet with Putin, in April 2019, he made the same trip. It lasted 20 hours at low speed (50 kilometers per hour) due to its heavy armored protection.
It was Kim Jong-un's last trip abroad. Months later, the covid pandemic broke out and Pyongyang closed its borders, which had only been partially 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 could make its arms 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, was aimed at getting 50,000 tons of grain from Russia in exchange for the country returning in the international talks about its nuclear program.
The United States last week urged Pyongyang "not to hand over weapons to Russia that can kill Ukrainians." If he does, "he will pay," warned Jake Sullivan, National Security Adviser.
Disarmament negotiations with the US failed in 2019, the last attempt to approach one of the most closed regimes in the world. Now, in the growing polarization fueling the Ukrainian conflict, North Korea is closing in on China and Russia.
In July, the Russian Minister of Defense, Sergei Shoigu, visited North Korea to participate in the events on the anniversary of the end of the Korean War. Voice of Korea radio reported that Kim and Choigu reached a consensus on national defense and security issues.
