Russia’s foreign minister offers security talks with North Korea and China

In this photo released by Russian Foreign Ministry, Kim Jong Un and Sergey Lavrov greet each other during a meeting in Pyongyang, yesterday

Russia’s foreign minister proposed regular security talks with North Korea and China to deal with what he described as increasing U.S.-led regional military threats, as he met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his top diplomat yesterday in Pyongyang.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in North Korea’s capital on Wednesday on a two-day trip expected to focus on how to boost the two countries’ defense ties following a September summit between Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Last week, the United States said North Korea had transferred munitions to Russia to boost its fighting capabilities in Ukraine in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban any weapons trading involving North Korea.

Yesterday, Lavrov met Kim for talks that lasted about an hour, Russia’s state-run Tass news agency reported, without elaborating. Lavrov met his North Korean counterpart, Choe Son Hui, earlier and lauded deepening bilateral collaboration.

Lavrov and Choe discussed “resuming full-fledged contacts” and intensifying economic cooperation, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It added that Lavrov invited Choe to visit Moscow “at her convenience.” The ministry also said Lavrov recommended that Russian tourists start holidaying in North Korea.

The Lavrov-Kim meeting “means that the recent fleet of containers likely carrying munitions from North Korea to Russia was not the last Kim-Putin transaction the world has to worry about,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha University in Seoul.

“After accepting Pyongyang’s help to resupply the illegal invasion of Ukraine, Moscow is set to commit further violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions by providing North Korea with weapons technology that could threaten stability in East Asia,” Easley said.

Tass quoted Lavrov as telling reporters that he supports holding regular talks on security issues on the Korean Peninsula with North Korea and China.

“The United States, Japan and South Korea intensifying military activity here and Washington working toward moving strategic infrastructure, including nuclear aspects, here, are of great concern to us and our North Korean friends,” Lavrov said, according to Tass.

The recent flurry of diplomacy between Russia and North Korea underscores how their interests are aligning in the face of their separate, intensifying confrontations with the United States — North Korea over its advancing nuclear program and Russia over its war with Ukraine. MDT/AP