While the United States accuses North Korea of supplying arms and ammunition to Russia, the head of Russian diplomacy is expected in Pyongyang this Wednesday, October 18. This first trip by Sergei Lavrov to the country since 2018 comes in the midst of a crisis in the Middle East and could serve as a prelude to a possible visit by Vladimir Putin to North Korea.
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With our correspondent in Seoul, Nicolas Rocca
As the relationship between Russia and North Korea reaches a historic revival, south of the dividing line, South Korea, the United States and Japan prepare to conduct their first trilateral air exercise on the Korean Peninsula . As guest of honor, the American nuclear-capable subsonic strategic bomber B52, which landed this Tuesday near Seoul.
A show of force which coincides with renewed accusations this week of transfers of North Korean arms and ammunition to Russia. Satellite images revealed by a British think tank show suspicious comings and goings of Russian cargo boats since mid-August. They reveal the transfer of hundreds of containers between the Rajin port in North Korea and the Dunai military complex in the Russian Far East.
The White House speaks of more than 1,000 containers filled with weapons and ammunition, but the Kremlin denies it outright. Nevertheless, Moscow assumes its new privileged relationship with Pyongyang. After the visit of the Russian Defense Minister in July, it is the head of diplomacy who comes to North Korea.
If the regime’s state media have not revealed a program, two subjects monopolize attention: possible announcements on a visit by Vladimir Putin, and what Moscow would provide to Pyongyang in exchange for supposed deliveries of arms and ammunition.
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