Russia and North Korea are getting closer. On July 27, the first direct flight from Moscow to Pyongyang in 75 years took place. The Russian charter company "Nordwind" will travel the route once a month. Since June, a train has also been running between the two capitals twice a month. The first tourists at the new North Korean resort of Wonsan Kalma were from Russia.
Pyongyang sends ammunition and soldiers against Ukraine
At the same time, North Korea continues to send thousands of containers full of ammunition and missiles, as well as workers and soldiers who are joining Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine. Moscow, in return, ignored the UN-imposed isolation of North Korea by supplying it with oil, food, and military technology.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un hosted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in mid-July for a “strategic dialogue.” Kim personally welcomed Lavrov aboard his yacht in Wonsan-Kalma. The deepening of relations between the two countries is rooted not only in geographical proximity and shared history, but also in an agreement on some particularly important issues, the Russian foreign minister stressed after the meeting.
After returning to Moscow, Lavrov was even more direct: “Our closest ally in the west is definitely Belarus. In the east, it is North Korea, with which we share decades of fraternal and military relations.”
Kim wants to arm himself
Increased cooperation with Russia is helping the Kim regime. He now expects his country to be recognized as a nuclear power, which would put bilateral relations with the United States on a different footing. The North Korean leader's sister, Kim Yo Jong, said on July 29 that relations between US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un "are not bad," making the statement in English.
However, a new summit will only be possible if the US stops pushing for denuclearization. The US president is due to visit South Korea in October. North Korea is hoping for a personal meeting. Kim and Trump have already met three times - in Singapore in 2018, in Vietnam in 2019, and a few months later, Trump walked across the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea in Kim's presence.
"2025 is not 2018 or 2019," Kim Yo Jong said in her statement. "If the US does not accept the changed reality and continues to cling to a failed past, the North Korea-US meeting will remain just an American dream". Pyongyang is definitely more confident in its capabilities today, South Korean intelligence believes. This is partly due to North Korea's increasing nuclear capabilities, but also to support from Russia.
North Korea does not want normalization
Kim's sister has already rejected attempts to normalize relations by the new South Korean President Lee Jae-myun. Since taking office, Lee has taken numerous steps to resume dialogue with North Korea. He has ordered the shutdown of propaganda loudspeaker towers along the border, ordered measures against the distribution of leaflets in balloons, and stopped radio and television broadcasts by the secret services to North Korea. His government has also introduced adjustments to military maneuvers with the United States.
However, Kim Yo Jong rejects Seoul's gesture: "No matter what policies are pursued and what proposals are made in Seoul, we have no interest in them. And there is neither a reason for a meeting nor topics to be discussed."
Russia recognizes North Korea as a nuclear power
Kim Yo Jong's statements, first to Seoul and then to Washington, appear to be strategic moves aimed at achieving a fundamental change in the current US position towards North Korea. Leader Kim Jong-un is clearly eager to meet Trump, but at best he would discuss limiting nuclear weapons in exchange for concessions from the United States.
"Until Washington signals publicly - and behind closed doors - its willingness to correct its previous position, Pyongyang is unlikely to consider formal talks," said Hong Min, a senior fellow at the Korea Institute for Unification.
Russia has already recognized North Korea as a de facto nuclear power. During his visit in July, Foreign Minister Lavrov said that North Korea had drawn its own conclusions about national defense long before the US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Lavrov suggested that North Korea had been developing its own nuclear weapons since the 1990s. "It is precisely because these conclusions were made in a timely manner that today no serious player is considering a military strike against North Korea," the Russian Foreign Minister also said.
Author: Martin Fritz