North Korea visited by Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu
North Korea welcomed delegations from Russia and China on Tuesday, including one of the masterminds of the invasion of Ukraine, footage has shown.
Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu, one of two senior Kremlin men tasked with running the “special military operation” in Ukraine, was greeted by a military salute on Tuesday night as he touched down in the pariah state.
Both countries have sent officials to North Korea to celebrate events marking the 70th anniversary of the armistice that halted fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War.
Though North Korea initiated the invasion that killed nearly five million people, and no peace treaty was ever signed, dictator Kim Jong-un maintains the armistice was a victory in what he calls the “Grand Fatherland Liberation War”.
The anniversary comes during a time of heightened tensions in the region as the pace of both North Korea’s weapons tests and the United States’ military exercises with South Korea have intensified in a tit-for-tat cycle.
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North Korea’s state media said that a Russian delegation led by Shoigu arrived in the capital of Pyongyang on Tuesday evening, where they were greeted by senior North Korean officials including defence minister Kang Sun Nam.
Shoigu’s ministry said the delegation’s visit will help strengthen relations and mark “an important stage” in the development of bilateral cooperation.
North Korea and Russia, as well as Iran, make up the core alliance of anti-Western forces behind a powerful China, who many believe is making a play to oust the US as the global superpower.
China’s ruling Communist Party sent a midlevel official, Li Hongzhong, alongside Shoigu.
North Korea has been preparing huge celebrations of the anniversary that are likely to be capped off by a military parade in Pyongyang, where leader Kim Jong Un could showcase his most powerful, nuclear-capable missiles designed to target neighbouring rivals and the US.
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Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said that Kim and his top defence and foreign policy officials visited two cemeteries, including one for Chinese troops who died while fighting alongside North Korea during the war.
Kim expressed gratitude for the Chinese soldiers who dedicated their lives to repel imperialist aggression, calling them “martyrs” who would be “immortal in the hearts of the Korean people”.
The Korean War brought in forces from the newly created People’s Republic of China, aided by the then-Soviet air force, while South Korea, the US and troops from various countries under the direction of the United Nations battled to repulse the invasion 70 years ago.
Nearly five million people, almost half of which were civilians, died during the three years of the “forgotten war”, so named for the lack of attention it received at the time from the outside world.
Fears abound that North Korea might ramp up its weapons tests around the anniversary of the armistice on Thursday, July 27. North Korea has conducted three separate rounds of missile firings since last week, apparently in protest of the United States sending naval vessels, including a nuclear-armed submarine, to South Korea in a show of force.
Since the start of 2022, North Korea has test-fired around 100 missiles as Kim exploits the distraction created by Russia’s war on Ukraine to accelerate the expansion of the nuclear-capable weapons he sees as his strongest guarantee of survival.
North Korea has also been aligning with Russia over the war in Ukraine, insisting that the “hegemonic policy” of the US-led West has forced Russia to take military action to protect its security interests.
The Biden administration has accused North Korea of providing arms to Russia to aid its fighting in Ukraine, although the North has denied the claim. Both Moscow and Beijing have also been thwarting US efforts to strengthen United Nations Security Council sanctions on North Korea over its flurry of missile tests.
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