Russia’s foreign minister has proposed regular security talks with North Korea and China to deal with what he described as increasing US-led regional military threats.
Sergei Lavrov made remarks on Thursday when he met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his top diplomat during a visit to Pyongyang on Thursday.
Russia’s Tass news agency reported that Lavrov met Kim for talks that lasted about an hour. The foreign minister also met his North Korean counterpart, Choe Son Hui, a day earlier and lauded deepening bilateral cooperation.
Following the meeting with the North Korean leader, Lavrov told reporters that he supports holding regular talks on security issues on the Korean Peninsula with North Korea and China.
“The United States, Japan and South Korea intensifying military activity here and Washington working toward moving strategic infrastructure, including nuclear aspects, here, are of great concern to us and our North Korean friends,” the top Russian diplomat was quoted as saying.
“We oppose this unconstructive and dangerous policy with a course toward de-escalation and inadmissibility of escalating tensions here,” Lavrov added.
The recent flurry of diplomacy between Russia and North Korea underscores how their interests are aligning in the face of their intensifying confrontations with the United States and its regional allies.
The US has been expanding regular military drills with South Korea and temporarily deploying more powerful military assets around the Korean Peninsula. The US and South Korea have also resumed some trilateral military exercises with Japan.
Choe also in remarks said her meeting with Lavrov “will become an important stage in terms of the implementation of the agreements” reached by Kim and President Putin in Moscow last month.
Lavrov during the meeting with Choe said Russia deeply values North Korea’s “unwavering and principled support” for the ongoing military operation against Ukraine as well as Pyongyang’s decision to recognize the independence of Russian-backed annexed regions in eastern Ukraine, according to Russia’s Foreign Ministry.
According to North Korean media, Lavrov also praised North Korea for “remaining unfazed by any pressure of the US and the West,” and said that Russia fully supports Kim’s push to protect its security and economic interests.
Choe said Pyongyang and Moscow were building an “unbreakable comradely relationship” under the leadership of Kim and Putin.
Media reports indicate that Moscow and Pyongyang were expected to solidify their security cooperation or announce the timing of Putin’s promised trip to Pyongyang to reciprocate Kim’s visit to Russia’s Far East.
Last month, during his travel to Russia, Kim met Putin at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia’s most important domestic space launch center.
North Korea has made space technology a priority. Kim in the past had stressed the role of military satellites as a means to protect national safety and territorial stability.
“After the historic summit between President Putin and Chairman of State Affairs Kim Jong Un at the Vostochny Cosmodrome on September 13, we can confidently say that the relations have reached a qualitatively new strategic level,” Lavrov said at the start of his meeting with Choe.
Kim in Russia also praised Moscow for having “stood up against the hegemonic forces” to defend its sovereignty and security, a veiled reference to the US and the West.
Washington claimed it had intelligence data that the talks between Putin and Kim on a weapons deal were “actively advancing.”
Kremlin said Kim’s visit would cover “bilateral relations, the situation in the region and in the global arena.”
The North Korean leader’s previous trip abroad was to Russia to meet Putin after the collapse of bilateral denuclearization talks with then-US president Donald Trump.
