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kennocha · Inscrit le: 26 Apr 2023 Messages: 21

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's reported plans to visit Russia this month have caused concern among the US and its allies.

He and President Vladimir Putin intend to discuss the possibility of North Korea providing Moscow with weapons to support its war in Ukraine, US officials say.

On the surface, an arms deal between North Korea and Russia makes perfect transactional sense.

Moscow desperately needs weapons, specifically ammunition and artillery shells, for the war in Ukraine, and Pyongyang has plenty of both.

On the other side, sanction-starved North Korea desperately needs money and food. More than three years of border closures, not to mention the breakdown of talks with the United States in 2019, have left the country more isolated than ever before.

But below the surface, it opens up the potential for Pyongyang and Moscow to start working more closely together. The US has been warning about a possible arms deal between the two countries for some time, but a leader-level meeting between Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin catapults this into the next realm.

While the priority for the US, certainly in the short-term, seems to be to stop North Korean weapons from getting to the frontline in Ukraine, the concern here in Seoul is over what North Korea would get in return for selling its arms to Russia.

With Russia in a desperate situation, Mr Kim will be able to extract a high price.

Perhaps he could demand increased military support from Russia. Yesterday, South Korea's intelligence service briefed that Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had suggested Russia, China and North Korea hold joint naval drills, similar to those carried out by the US, South Korea and Japan, which Kim Jong Un so detests.
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