Vladimir Putin y Kim Jong-un they have only met face to face once. It was near the North Korean border, in the Russian city of Vladivostok. Kim, dressed in a trench coat and black hat, crossed in an armored train. His Russian colleague greeted him with a handshake on the Far Eastern Federal University campus. The meeting was in April 2019a couple of months after the failed summit in Hanoi between Kim and Donald Trump. Since then, the leaders of Moscow and Pyongyang have exchanged letters and continued flattery. But they have not seen each other again in person. that could change this same september.
Vladivostok will bring Putin and Kim together again. This is what The New York Times revealed on Monday. The appointment could be early next week on the university campus where an economic forum is being held. There, the Russian would try to convince his North Korean counterpart to give him sell artillery ammunition for his war in the Ukraine.
The United States has been warning all year that North Korea is willing to send weapons to Russia, if not already doing so indirectly. White House national security spokesman John Kirby said a few months ago that Pyongyang was covertly channeling artillery shells to help russia in its invasion, specifically delivering artillery to the Wagner group. The North Korean regime denied this, as it did last year when Washington warned that Moscow was buying “millions of rockets and artillery shells” from it.
Kim’s support for the Russian invasion is being absolute. “The Russian people achieved great success in carrying out the just cause of protecting their dignity and the security of their country, overcoming all kinds of difficulties and problems. The Korean people express their full support and approval,” Kim Jong-wrote. a to Putin in one of his letters.
Right after Putin moved his troops into Ukraine, North Korea was one of four countries – along with Eritrea, Belarus and Syria – that opposed the United Nations General Assembly resolution that condemned the attack. Later, Moscow returned the favor by exercising its veto power over new UN Security Council sanctions against Pyongyang over its nuclear program.