- North Korea invited visiting Chinese delegates and Russian artists to a paramilitary parade featuring rocket launchers.
- The event in the capital, Pyongyang, which began Friday night to celebrate North Korea’s 75th founding anniversary that fell on Saturday.
- South Korean media speculated that the lack of Russian government officials at the festivities in Pyongyang could be related to preparations for a summit between Kim and Putin.
- North Korea has not confirmed any plans for Kim to visit Russia.
- The growing cooperation between China, Russia, and North Korea, and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s decision to skip the Group of 20 Summit in India, give the appearance of a widening fissure in Asia’s geopolitical landscape.
North Korea invited visiting Chinese delegates and Russian artists to a paramilitary parade featuring rocket launchers pulled by trucks and tractors in leader Kim Jong Un’s latest effort to display his ties with Moscow and Beijing in the face of deepening confrontations with Washington.
The event in the capital, Pyongyang, which began Friday night to celebrate North Korea’s 75th founding anniversary that fell on Saturday, came amid expectations that Kim will travel to Russia soon for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin that could focus on North Korean arms sales to refill reserves drained by the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine.
While China has sent a delegation led by Vice Premier Liu Guozhong to North Korea’s anniversary celebrations, Russia sent a military song and dance group.
South Korean media speculated that the lack of Russian government officials at the festivities in Pyongyang could be related to preparations for a summit between Kim and Putin, which Washington expects within the month. According to some U.S. reports, it could happen as early as next week.
South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing Thursday that North Korea and Russia could also be arranging an unexpected “surprise” route for Kim’s visit to avoid potential venues reported by the media.
North Korea has not confirmed any plans for Kim to visit Russia.
The growing cooperation between China, Russia, and North Korea, and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s decision to skip the Group of 20 Summit in India, give the appearance of a widening fissure in Asia’s geopolitical landscape, he said.
Still, a major Russia-North Korea arms deal, which would breach numerous international sanctions, should worry Beijing because “association with an emerging pariah state bloc could have negative repercussions for China’s globalized but struggling economy,” Easley said.
KCNA said Kim received letters from Putin and Xi on the anniversary, where both leaders said that their countries’ strengthening ties with North Korea would contribute to the region’s peace and stability.
KCNA said Kim met with Liu and other Chinese delegates ahead of the parade, where they exchanged views on “further intensifying the multi-faceted coordination and cooperation” between the countries.
Tensions in the Korean Peninsula are at their highest point in years, as the pace of both North Korea’s missile tests and the United States combined military exercises with South Korea and Japan have intensified in tit-for-tat.
To counter the deepening security cooperation between Washington, Seoul, and Tokyo, Kim has been trying to boost the visibility of his partnerships with Moscow and Beijing as he seeks to break out of diplomatic isolation and have North Korea be a part of a united front against the United States.
In July, Kim invited delegations led by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chinese Communist Party Politburo member Li Hongzhong to a huge military parade in Pyongyang, where he rolled out his most powerful weapons, including intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to target the U.S. mainland.
(With inputs from agencies)
