According to state media on Thursday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu to talk about military matters and the regional security environment. This shows North Korea’s support for Russia’s involvement in the conflict in Ukraine as the isolated nation commemorates the 70th anniversary of an armistice that halted hostilities in the 1950–1953 Korean War.
The highlight of the North Korean celebrations was to be a military parade on Thursday night in the capital, Pyongyang, where Kim could display his most potent, nuclear-capable missiles intended to threaten nearby rivals and the United States, possibly in front of Shoigu and a visiting Chinese ruling party official.
The existence of a military parade has not been acknowledged by North Korea’s state media. However, according to two South Korean government sources who spoke on the record on the condition of anonymity to offer context, the parade most likely began at around 8 p.m. (0700EST/1100 GMT) with warm-up activities and was still running strong by 9:50 p.m.
According to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, Kim and Shoigu spoke Wednesday in Pyongyang and agreed on certain “matters of mutual concern in the field of national defense and security as well as on the regional and international security environment.”
Regarding the conflict in Ukraine, North Korea has sided with Russia, claiming that the “hegemonic policy” of the U.S.-led West obliged Moscow to use force to defend its security interests. North Korea has denied transferring weapons to Russia to support the conflict in Ukraine, despite accusations from the Biden administration.
According to KCNA, Shoigu gave Kim a “warm and good letter” from Russian President Vladimir Putin during their encounter.
The meeting will “further boost the strategic and tactical collaboration and cooperation between the two countries in the field of national defense and security,” according to the KCNA.
According to KCNA, Kim also took Shoigu to an arms display where he showed him some of North Korea’s newest weaponry and briefed him on national plans to strengthen the nation’s armed forces. Kim and Shoigu were pictured and captured on camera during the display when they were seen strolling close to a line of massive missiles mounted on launcher trucks.
The North is working to build an arsenal that can represent a real danger to the continental United States, and some of the weapons in the photographs seemed to be intercontinental ballistic missiles that had just undergone flight testing. Along the way, Kim and Shoigu passed what might have been brand-new attack and surveillance drones that the North had not made public.
