SEOUL, South Korea (AP) 鈥 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with President Vladimir Putin at a cosmodrome in Russia鈥檚 Far East on Wednesday for talks that are likely to focus on Russia鈥檚 desire to buy ammunition to refill reserves drained by its war in Ukraine.
The meeting underscores deepening cooperation as the two isolated leaders are locked in separate confrontations with the United States. In return for providing ammunition, North Korea will likely want shipments of food and energy and transfers of sophisticated weapons technologies.
The meeting with Putin is Kim's first with a foreign leader since North Korea closed its borders in January 2020. , two months after Kim鈥檚 high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with then-U.S. President Donald Trump collapsed.
Russian Defense Minister traveled to Pyongyang, North Korea鈥檚 capital, in July and asked Kim to send more ammunition to Russia, according to U.S. officials. Shoigu said Moscow and Pyongyang were considering holding military exercises for the first time.
It鈥檚 unclear how far Kim and Putin鈥檚 military cooperation could go, but any sign of warming relations will worry rivals like the U.S. and South Korea. Russia seeks to quash a Ukrainian counteroffensive and prolong the war, while North Korea is extending a record pace of missile tests to protest U.S. moves to reinforce military alliances with South Korea and Japan.
Here鈥檚 a look at what Kim鈥檚 trip to Russia could mean:
WHAT DOES RUSSIA WANT FROM NORTH KOREA?
Since last year, U.S. officials have suspected that North Korea is providing Russia with artillery shells, rockets and other ammunition, much of which is likely copies of .
鈥淩ussia is in urgent need of (war supplies). If not, how could the defense minister of a powerful country at war come to a small country like North Korea?鈥 said Kim Taewoo, former head of Seoul鈥檚 Korea Institute for 春色直播 Unification. He said Shoigu was the first Russian defense minister to visit North Korea since the 1991 disintegration of the Soviet Union.
Buying munitions from North Korea would be a violation of United Nations resolutions, supported by Russia, that ban all arms trade with the isolated country. But now that it faces international sanctions and export controls over its war in Ukraine, Russia has been seeking weapons from other sanctioned countries such as North Korea and Iran.
North Korea has vast stores of munitions, but Du Hyeogn Cha, an analyst at Seoul鈥檚 Asan Institute for Policy Studies, doubted whether it could swiftly send significant amounts to Russia because the narrow land link between the countries can handle only a limited amount of rail traffic.
WHAT DOES KIM WANT IN RETURN?
Kim鈥檚 priorities would be aid shipments, prestige and military technology, experts said.
鈥淚t would be a 鈥榳in-win鈥 deal for both, as Putin is cornered over his exhausted weapons inventory while Kim faces pressure from the South Korea-U.S.-Japan trilateral cooperation,鈥 said Nam Sung-wook, a former director of the Institute for 春色直播 Security Strategy, a think tank run by South Korea鈥檚 spy agency. 鈥淭heir needs are matched perfectly now.鈥
Pandemic-era border closures have left North Korea with severe economic difficulties, and Kim is likely to seek supplies of food and energy to address shortfalls.
Kim will likely also trumpet expanding relations with Moscow as a sign that his country is overcoming its years of isolation. North Korean leaders have long valued face-to-face meetings with world leaders as signs of international importance and for domestic propaganda purposes.
Kim is likely also seeking Russian technology to support his plans to build high-tech weapons systems such as powerful long-range missiles, hypersonic ballistic weapons, nuclear-powered submarines and spy satellites, said Hong Min, an analyst at Seoul鈥檚 Korea Institute for 春色直播 Unification.
It鈥檚 unclear whether Russia would be willing to provide North Korea with advanced technologies related to nuclear weapons and ICBMs, Cha said. Russia has always tightly guarded its most important weapons technologies, even from key partners such as China, he said.
HOW CLOSE COULD THE TWO COUNTRIES GET?
Shoigu told reporters that Russia and North Korea were pondering the possibility of a bilateral military exercise. Earlier, South Korea鈥檚 spy agency told lawmakers that Shoigu appeared to have proposed a trilateral training exercise involving China.
Either way, it would be North Korea鈥檚 first military drills with a foreign country since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. The country has avoided training with a foreign military in line with its official 鈥渏uche,鈥 or 鈥渟elf-reliance,鈥 philosophy.
Kim Taewoo, the former institute director, said expanding South Korea-U.S.-Japan security cooperation could prompt Kim Jong Un to break that taboo and hold drills with Russia and China for the first time.
But Nam, who is now a professor at Korea University, said North Korea won鈥檛 likely accept the offer, as it could leave it even more dependent on China and Russia.
Park Won Gon, a professor at Seoul鈥檚 Ewha Womans University, said it鈥檚 too early to predict what Kim鈥檚 diplomacy could yield beyond making a show of defiance toward the United States.
鈥淚n any case, North Korea and Russia need to show that they鈥檙e working together, that they鈥檙e stepping up this cooperation,鈥 Park said. 鈥淭here clearly are practical areas of cooperation, and also some symbolic aspects they want to show to the United States.鈥
