North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets with Russian Defence Minister on military cooperation
The Hindu
Kim Jong Un and Sergei Shoigu discussed military issues and regional security during a meeting in Pyongyang. They exchanged letters from Putin and Kim showed off North Korea's newest weapons. South Korea is analysing the weapons, while the North is aligning with Russia and China against the US. A military parade is expected to cap the North's 70th anniversary celebrations.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to discuss military issues and the regional security environment, state media said on Thursday as the country celebrated the 70th anniversary of an armistice that halted fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War.
The North's official Korean Central News Agency said Mr. Kim and Mr. Shoigu talked Wednesday in the capital, Pyongyang, and reached a consensus on unspecified “matters of mutual concern in the field of national defence and security and on the regional and international security environment.”
During the meeting, Mr. Shoigu conveyed to Kim a “warm and good letter” signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, KCNA said. The report did not specify the military matters that were discussed.
In a rare case of diplomatic opening since the start of the pandemic, North Korea invited delegations from Russia and China to attend the events marking the armistice of July 27, 1953.
While the truce left the Korean Peninsula in a technical state of war, the North still sees it as a victory in the “Grand Fatherland Liberation War.”
KCNA said Kim also took Mr. Shoigu to an arms exhibition that showcased some of North Korea's newest weapons and briefed him on national plans to expand the country's military capabilities. Photos from the exhibition showed Mr. Kim and Mr. Shoigu walking near a row of large missiles mounted on launcher trucks.
Some of the weapons in the images appeared to be intercontinental ballistic missiles that the North has flight-tested in recent years as it pursues an arsenal that can pose a viable threat to the continental United States.
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