Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday defended his country’s cooperation with North Korea’s Stalinist dictatorship. “We are not a threat to anyone,” Putin said Friday in Sochi, where he met Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko. They are neighbors and the divided Korean Peninsula has a special situation. But Moscow is not violating any international sanctions against the country, which is ostracized because of its nuclear plans, Putin said.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un on Wednesday met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia’s most modern space facility in the Amur region. As Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced, Putin and Kim presented each other with rifles as a gift. Putin gave Kim a “high quality” Russian-made rifle – as well as a space suit glove that had already been in space “several times”. In return, Kim gave Putin a carbine made in North Korea. After the visit to the Cosmodrome, the two met for bilateral consultations. Russia and North Korea intend to strengthen their ties with further talks on North Korean soil following the recent summit in Vostochny. Putin therefore accepted Kim’s invitation to visit North Korea.
During the meeting, fears were raised in the West that Russia would purchase ammunition from North Korea for an aggressive war against Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied this. According to Interfax agency, no military-technical agreements were signed during Kim’s visit. Putin said it was also nonsense that Russia allegedly wanted to use North Korean volunteers in Ukraine.
