North Korean leader Kim Jong-un intends to travel to Russia to discuss with President Vladimir Putin arms sales from Pyongyang to Moscow for its war in Ukraine, the White House has claimed, but Moscow does not did not confirm, Tuesday, September 5, the holding of the summit. “No, we can’t (confirm), we have nothing to say on this topic,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in response to reporters regarding the House- White.
“As we’ve said before, arms supply negotiations between Russia and North Korea are actively progressing,” said Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council. And “we know that Kim Jong-un wants these negotiations to continue, including a diplomatic exchange at the highest level in Russia,” she added in an email to the press. On Wednesday, the National Security Council’s chief spokesman, John Kirby, had already expressed alarm at the rapid progress of these negotiations on future arms deliveries from Pyongyang to Moscow and had called on the communist regime to “stop these discussions.
John Kirby revealed that “these potential deals would see Russia receive significant amounts” of armaments, particularly artillery ammunition, as well as raw materials for its defense industry. These weapons would be “used against Ukraine”, added the American ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
According to the New York Times, Kim Jong-un is expected to travel to Vladivostok, on Russia’s east coast, on an armored train later this month to meet with Vladimir Putin. The North Korean leader’s trips abroad are rare. Besides his trips to Singapore and Vietnam in 2018 and 2019 for summits with then-US President Donald Trump, Kim Jong-un made four visits to China.
He also previously met with Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok in 2019. The New York Times reports that Vladimir Putin wants North Korean artillery shells and anti-tank missiles. Kim Jong-un is said to be seeking state-of-the-art technologies for satellites and submarines, as well as food aid.
Washington said last week that North Korea had supplied infantry rockets and missiles to Russia in 2022 for use by the private paramilitary group Wagner. The White House on Monday again denounced the late July visit of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to North Korea, where he attended a military parade alongside Kim Jong-un, in order to “try to convince Pyongyang to sell artillery ammunition to Russia”.
Last week, the United States, Britain, South Korea and Japan said any deal to increase cooperation between Russia and North Korea would violate United Nations Security Council resolutions banning arms sales to Pyongyang, resolutions that Moscow itself approved.
They said that following Sergei Shoigu’s visit to Pyongyang, another group of Russian officials visited North Korea for follow-up talks. Last month, Washington sanctioned three entities accused of seeking to facilitate arms sales between North Korea and Russia.
These three entities were linked to a Slovak national already sanctioned by the US Treasury in March for allowing arms sales between Pyongyang and Moscow, according to the Treasury Department. According to the same source, Russia continues to run out of ammunition and lose heavy equipment in Ukraine, forcing it to turn to its core group of allies for help.