Kim Jong Un’s train has left. Putin is waiting for him
The Kremlin confirmed that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will pay an official visit to Russia at the invitation of President Vladimir Putin in a statement on Monday.
While previous reports speculated that such a meeting could happen soon, which will mark the first such summit since the start of the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin statement indicates that it will take place sooner than expected, including this week.
The Russian government's announcement states that Kim and Putin will meet "in the coming days." South Korean state media has already reported that Kim is "moving slowly inside North Korea on a private train towards the northeastern border" and that the two leaders plan to "meet and talk."
Given the proximity of the tiny border shared between the two countries, the meeting is likely to take place in the far eastern city of Vladivostok, which was the site of their first ever meeting in April 2019. The city is located approximately 120 miles from the North Korean border.
As is known, the "Mattei case" has set a precedent in North Korea and Kim Jong Un does not like traveling by plane. Although he has a luxury state plane, an Ilyushin 92, he uses it rather rarely on his rare visits abroad and prefers, if possible, to use the train. Of the four trips made to Beijing, two were made using the train, two by plane. When he met Trump he relied on a Chinese state flight because his plane was deemed unsafe. For his state visit to Vietnam, certainly not around the corner, he traveled for two and a half days by train.
Kim Jong Un Train STR/AFP via Getty Images
Last week it was revealed that arms negotiations between Russia and North Korea are "actively advancing" – following Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu's July trip to Pyongyang, where he and his delegation met with his North Korean counterpart and senior officials, and were present to mark the 70th anniversary celebrations of the end of the Korean War, referred to in the North as “Victory Day.”
During Shoigu's visit in July, North Korea's Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam reportedly said that his government fully supports Russia's "battle for justice" and the protection of its sovereignty, but there was no indication that Kim himself had directly invoked the Ukrainian conflict. Shoigu at the time reportedly praised the North's army as one of the "strongest" in the world.
Both countries remain in the US crosshairs and subject to far-reaching sanctions. Shoigu's visit likely kicked off a serious dialogue, as it marked the first visit by a Russian Defense Ministry to North Korea since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. So the next step, we now learn, will be an ultra-provocative trip by Kim to meet Putin in Russia.
Late last month, White House NSC official John Kirby predicted: “Following these negotiations, high-level discussions may continue in the coming months.” This is also when the NSC first said the two sides were negotiating over “significant quantities and multiple types” of weapons for use in Ukraine.
It may be that preparations for a major arms deal have already been prepared and that Kim and Putin will finalize them and sign an agreement. It is well known that Russia is rapidly using artillery shells in Ukraine and that these are needed by Putin's army, so North Korea will likely be asked to activate its lines to full capacity.
Thanks to our Telegram channel you can stay updated on the publication of new Economic Scenarios articles.
The article Kim Jong Un's train has left. Putin is waiting for him comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/il-treno-di-kim-jong-un-e-partito-putin-lo-aspetta/ on Mon, 11 Sep 2023 16:53:38 +0000.