Moscow-Pyongyang ties reach ‘new, strategic level’: Lavrov

Seoul, Oct 19 (EFE).- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday that relations between Moscow and Pyongyang have reached a “new, strategic level,” at a time of heightened wariness of the relationship among the West and its allies.

“After the landmark summit between President [Vladimir] Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the Vostochny spaceport on September 13, we can say confidently that these relations have reached a qualitatively new, strategic level,” Lavrov said at the start of his meeting with his North Korean counterpart Choe Sun-hui in Pyongyang, according to the Russian state news agency Tass.

Lavrov noted that the countries celebrate 75 years of relations since the former Soviet Union on Oct. 12, 1948 became the first country to recognize North Korea, which had proclaimed itself an independent state a month earlier.

The Russian foreign minister also highlighted that Moscow “helped North Korea develop its national economy, science, culture, and education,” Tass said.

“We will always remember the priceless contribution to the development of our relations that was made my Comrade Kim Il-jung and later by Comrade Kim Jong-il,” Lavrov stressed.

Choe, also quoted by Tass, assured that “frequent meetings between the two countries’ foreign ministers, which help strengthen friendly ties, serve as a proof that North Korean-Russian bilateral relations, which have a long history of friendship, are demonstrating development dynamic, developing vigorously.”

Lavrov arrived in Pyongyang on Wednesday for a two-day visit and said then that this trip will accelerate the implementation of the agreements reached between the leaders of both countries last month.

Although the details of the summit between Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Vostochny Cosmodrome have not been made public, Moscow assured that it provided space for military and space cooperation between the two countries.

According to media outlets such as the New York Times, Kim could have agreed to support Moscow’s war in Ukraine with anti-tank missiles and artillery ammunition in exchange for food aid and satellite and nuclear-powered submarine technology, which Washington and Seoul have stressed would violate international sanctions.

The United States said on the 13th that North Korea has delivered to Russia by train and by ship more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munition to be used by Moscow in its war in Ukraine. EFE

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