Russia has issued yet another terrifying warning to the West after the Russian defence minister Sergei Lavrov met with the North Korean foreign minister in Pyongyang this week.
Russia minister Lavrov flew to the hermit state on Wednesday (October 18) for a two-day trip, and during his visit he thanked North Korea for its strong support for Russia’s war on Ukraine.
The meeting comes around a month after Vladimir Putin met with leader Kim Jong-Un in Russia, a meeting which triggered intense speculation that Mr Kim seeks sophisticated Russian technologies to modernise his nuclear arsenal in return for supplying conventional arms to refill Russia’s exhausted weapons inventory.
While Lavrov did not confirm the nature of the meeting between the two leaders last month, he did terrifyingly confirm that the relationship had ‘reached a new level’.
He said at the start of the meeting with North Korea’s Choe Sun Hui: “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.”
Neither country immediately released details of the meeting, but Mr Lavrov said on Wednesday that his visit was meant to discuss implementing the unspecified agreements between Mr Putin and Mr Kim that were reached during their September summit.
During a banquet dinner held for him, Mr Lavrov said Russia deeply values North Korea’s “unwavering and principled support” for its war on Ukraine as well as Pyongyang’s decision to recognise the independence of Russian-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine, according to Russia’s foreign ministry.
According to Russia’s state-run Interfax news agency, Lavrov added: “We are fully aware that many countries worldwide share similar viewpoints and assessments, but only a select few, such as (North Korea), explicitly declare their solidarity with Russia and can express it openly.”
According to North Korea’s state media, Mr Lavrov also praised North Korea for “remaining unfazed by any pressure of the US and the West” and said Russia fully supports Mr Kim’s push to protect its security and economic interests.
Ms Choe said at the dinner banquet that Pyongyang and Moscow were building an “unbreakable comradely relationship” under the “strategic” decisions and leadership of Mr Kim and Mr Putin, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.
The White House said on Friday that North Korea has delivered more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Russia.
The White House released images that it said show the containers were loaded on to a Russian-flagged ship before being moved via train to southwestern Russia.
The containers were shipped between September 7 and October 1 between Najin, North Korea, and Dunay, Russia, according to the White House.
Since last year, the US has accused North Korea of providing ammunition, artillery shells and rockets to Russia, likely much of them copies of Soviet-era munitions.
North Korea has steadfastly denied it shipped arms to Russia, but South Korean officials said North Korean weapons provided to Russia had already been used in Ukraine.
The recently flurry of diplomacy between Moscow and Pyongyang underscores how their interests are aligning in the face of their separate, intensifying confrontations with the United States.
In July, when Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu visited North Korea, Mr Kim took him to an arms exhibition and a military parade, where some of the North’s newest and most powerful weapons were displayed.
