During the official luncheon held in honor of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Vostochny Space Center, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow and Pyongyang seek to strengthen friendship and good neighborliness for the sake of peace and stability in the region.
Before lunch – but after two-hour negotiations between the delegations – the two leaders held a face-to-face meeting.
Kim Jong Un: Pyongyang supports Moscow in its general campaign against imperialism
The negotiating delegations included the foreign and defense ministers of the two countries, along with other high-level officials.
During lunch, Putin praised the historical relations between the two countries. He reminded him that the good relationship was built on the fact that Soviet and Korean soldiers fought side by side against Japanese militarists in 1945. He recalled Kim’s visit to Vladivostok in 2019, and said the talks were now taking place in the same “really friendly” atmosphere that had prevailed then. the time. He said that in addition to Vostochny, his guest’s program also includes a visit to other important high-tech clusters, industrial enterprises and innovation centers of the Russian Far East.
He explained that the two countries established diplomatic relations 75 years ago, and that the Soviet Union was the first to recognize the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. According to Putin, his guest will firmly and confidently continue the work done by excellent statesmen such as his father and grandfather, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.
The North Korean leader was received with military pomp at a Russian railway border station
Kim arrived at Hassan Station on Monday, where Kozlov held talks with him.
In his toast, the DPRK leader expressed his readiness to build stable and future-oriented relations between countries and, on the basis of this, to encourage strong state building in both countries, as well as to achieve true international justice. He expressed confidence that “unbreakable strategic cooperation” would develop between the two parties.
From his point of view, he visited Russia at a time when there was a struggle between progress and reaction, justice and injustice, and “thanks to the common will and united strength of independent forces, the process of building a multipolar world is taking place.” “It is developing strongly.” He said that he discussed the situation in Europe and the Korean Peninsula with Putin.
He said he was confident that Russia’s army and people would achieve a great victory in the “sacred struggle over the group of evil people who feed the illusion of domination and expansion” and “will confidently demonstrate the priceless virtues of honor on two fronts – in special operations and in building a strong state.” .
North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles
This was the first time North Korea fired a missile while Kim Jong Un was abroad.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the parties had not signed any agreements or adopted a joint statement. Speaking to Russia 1 channel, he stressed that bilateral cooperation serves the interests of the two sovereign countries and is not directed against anyone else. He noted that the comprehensive system of relations includes, among other things, military technical cooperation and the exchange of ideas on security.
Peskov added that Russia is adhering to its position in the United Nations on the issue of sanctions against the DPRK, but this should not be an obstacle to developing Russian-North Korean relations.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also told Russia 1 channel that Russia will continue to cooperate equally and fairly with North Korea. As he said, Moscow has never imposed sanctions on Pyongyang, and the issue of punitive measures falls within the jurisdiction of the UN Security Council.
He recalled that the sanctions imposed on the DPRK arose in a completely different geopolitical situation, and after voting on these latest measures, both Russia and China indicated that they were no longer willing to do more.
He stressed that by rejecting a political settlement of the situation on the Korean Peninsula, the West frustrated its own attempts to issue a new resolution against the DPRK in the BT Treaty. He objected to the idea of deploying nuclear weapons in South Korea and Japan. “First of all, because, in parallel with the measures taken by the Security Council, all our Western colleagues promised that we would proceed on the political path towards resolving humanitarian issues. It was another lie. They fooled us, the Chinese, and the North Koreans too“, said the Prime Minister.
Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un met at the Vostochny Cosmodrome
Putin flew from Vladivostok to Vostochny, and Kim Jong Un arrived by train at the space complex in the Amur region.
He complained that instead of a political settlement, the United States began to arm itself with the participation of South Korea, Japan, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
Regarding Western media reports about the two countries supplying each other with weapons, Lavrov said that he does not care about what the Western press writes, especially after Western countries “violated all their contractual obligations,” including transferring huge quantities of Soviet-Russian weapons. Military equipment was transferred to Ukraine. He pointed out that this is a flagrant violation of so-called end-use certificates, according to which it is prohibited to transfer weapons to any place without the consent of the seller.
Kim Jong-un left Vostochny after the negotiations ended.
Russian state news agency TASSSZ reported that the North Korean delegation enjoyed Siberian and Far Eastern dishes during the official luncheon. The menu included duck salad with seasonal fruits, including figs and nectarines, followed by pelmeni stuffed with Kamchatka crab and white carp soup. Before the hot dishes – sturgeon with mushrooms and potatoes and marbled beef ribs with grilled vegetables – guests were served sea buckthorn sorbet. Dessert was taiga berries with pine nuts and condensed milk. White and red wines from the Gyivnomorszkoje estate in the Krasnodar region were served with the meals.
