• World

North Korea's Kim Gets a Close Look at Russian Fighter Jets as His Tour Narrows its Focus to Weapons

• By Associated Press (AP)
• September 15, 2023 4:26 PM

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un peered into the cockpit of Russia's most advanced fighter jet as he toured an aircraft factory Friday on an extended trip that has raised concerns about banned weapons transfer deals between the increasingly isolated countries.

Since entering Russia aboard his armored train on Tuesday, Kim has met President Vladimir Putin and visited weapons and technology sites, underscoring deepening ties between the two nations locked in separate confrontations with the West. Foreign governments and experts speculate Kim will likely supply ammunition to Russia for its war efforts in Ukraine in exchange for receiving advanced weapons or technology from Russia.

On Friday, Russia's state media published video showing Kim's train pulling into a station in the far eastern city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur and Kim's convoy sweeping out of the station on the way to the city's aircraft factory.

Russia's Cabinet later released video showing Kim, on an elevated platform, looking at the cockpit of the Su-57 — Russia's most sophisticated fighter jet — while listening to its pilot. Kim beamed and clapped his hands after a Su-35 fighter jet landed after a demonstration flight.

According to a Russian Cabinet statement, Kim visited a facility producing Sukhoi SJ-100 passenger planes as well. It said he was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov.

"We have shown one of our leading aircraft plants to the leader of (North Korea)," Manturov said in the statement. "We are seeing potential for cooperation in the aircraft-making and other industries, which is particularly acute for solving our countries' task of achieving technological sovereignty."

Kim is to travel next to Vladivostok to view Russia's Pacific fleet, a university and other facilities, Putin told Russian media after he met with Kim on Wednesday.

It was Kim's first foreign trip since April 2019, when he visited Vladivostok for his first meeting with Putin. The 2019 Russian visit came two months after Kim failed to win badly needed sanctions relief from the United States during a second summit with then U.S.-President Donald Trump in Vietnam.

Kim's earlier trip was likely primarily meant to seek Russian help to overcome the brunt of U.S.-led sanctions. But this time, Putin appears to be desperate to receive North Korean conventional arms to replenish his exhausted inventory in the second year of Russia's war in Ukraine. Experts say Kim, in return, would seek Russian assistance to modernize his air force and navy, which are inferior to those of rival South Korea while Kim has devoted much of his own resources to his nuclear weapons program.

The summit between Kim and Putin on Wednesday took place at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia's most important domestic launch center. The venue is likely linked to North Korean struggles to put into space an operational spy satellite to monitor U.S. and South Korean military movements.

Asked if Russia and North Korea could cooperate in space research, Putin said: "That's why we have come here. (Kim) shows keen interest in rocket technology. They're trying to develop space, too."

Since last year, the U.S. accused North Korea of providing ammunition, artillery shells and rockets to Russia, likely much of them copies of Soviet-era munitions. South Korean officials said North Korean weapons provided to Russia have already been used in Ukraine.

On Thursday evening, the national security advisers of the U.S., South Korea and Japan talked by phone and expressed "serious concerns" about prospective weapons deals between Russia and North Korea. They warned Russia and North Korea would "pay a clear price" if they go ahead with such deals, according to South Korea's presidential office.