SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said on Thursday (Oct 19) he wants to build a “forward-looking” relationship with Russia as he met with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, state media reported.
The veteran envoy’s two-day visit is expected to lay the groundwork for a trip to the country by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was invited by Kim last month at a high-profile summit in Russia’s far east.
The September summit fanned Western fears Pyongyang might provide Moscow with weapons for its war in Ukraine.
Kim said it was the goal of the ruling workers party and the government “to work out a stable, forward-looking, far-reaching plan for the DPRK-Russia relations in the new era”, the KCNA news agency said, using the official acronym for North Korea.
Lavrov lashed out at what he termed a “dangerous” US policy towards North Korea while touting the “new, strategic level” of relations between Moscow and Pyongyang.
“Like our North Korean friends, we are seriously worried about the intensification of military activity of the United States, Japan and South Korea in the region and by Washington’s policies,” Lavrov told journalists, according to Russian news agencies.
In the face of a record-breaking series of weapons tests by Pyongyang this year, Seoul has moved to strengthen its security relationship with traditional ally the United States while entering a trilateral defence arrangement that also includes Japan.
Seoul and Washington have staged joint military exercises with advanced stealth jets and US strategic assets, while an American nuclear-armed submarine in July made a South Korean port call for the first time in decades.
A B-52 bomber capable of carrying a nuclear payload currently sits at Cheongju airport, about 100km south of Seoul, marking the first time one has landed in the country since at least 2000.
Local media reports said this week that the bomber would take part in a joint aerial drill near the Korean peninsula on Sunday that would involve South Korea, the United States and Japan.
TIGHTENING RELATIONSHIP
But North Korea’s relationship with Russia has also been tightening, Lavrov said Thursday.
“After the landmark summit … we can say confidently that relations have reached a qualitatively new, strategic level,” Lavrov reportedly told North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui at a meeting.
Source: CNA
