Warren P. Strobel
WASHINGTON—North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is expected to travel to Russia soon to meet with President Vladimir Putin, U.S. officials said Monday, the latest sign that negotiations are accelerating over ammunition Moscow is seeking for its war in Ukraine.
The trip would be unusual for the North Korean leader, who rarely travels abroad. Moscow and Pyongyang have grown closer amid economic sanctions and diplomatic pressure from the U.S. and its allies.
The planned Kim-Putin meeting was earlier reported by the
New York Times, which said Kim would likely travel by armored train to meet Putin next week in Vladivostok, on Russia’s eastern coast.
“Arms negotiations between Russia and the DPRK are actively advancing,” White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement, noting that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu traveled to Pyongyang in July to try to persuade North Korea to sell artillery ammunition to Russia. North Korea’s formal name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“We have information that Kim Jong Un expects these discussions to continue, to include leader-level diplomatic engagement in Russia,” Watson said.
It couldn’t be determined what intelligence information led to the U.S. assessment of the expected Kim-Putin summit and the accelerating bargaining over weaponry.
Under heavy Western sanctions and locked in a costly war of attrition in Ukraine, Russia has been seeking weapons from many countries. It has received drones and other material from Iran and has also sought assistance from China.
North Korea has thus far shied away from large-scale weapons sales to Russia, although U.S. officials say in late 2022 it delivered infantry rockets and missiles for use by the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group.
But last week, the White House said publicly it had new information that Moscow-Pyongyang weapons talks were advancing.
North Korean media showed Leader Kim Jong Un taking Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu around a hall full of weapons, including missiles and drones. The event came as delegations from Russia and China visited the country for the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War.
Following Shoigu’s visit to North Korea, Putin and Kim exchanged letters “pledging to increase their bilateral cooperation,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, adding that after Shoigu’s trip a second group of Russian officials went to Pyongyang for follow-on discussions about arms deals.
“Under these potential deals, Russia would receive significant quantities and multiple types of munitions from the DPRK, which the Russian military would use in Ukraine,” Kirby said. “These potential deals also could include the provision of raw materials that would assist Russia’s defense industrial base.”
“We urge the DPRK to cease its arms negotiations with Russia and abide by the public commitments that Pyongyang has made to not provide or sell arms to Russia,” Kirby said.
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