“Further strengthening of strategic and tactical cooperation, mutual support and solidarity in the battle for our sovereign right to security,” is the essence of DPRK Chairman Kim Jong-un’s summary of the Kremlin-Pyongyang talks.
In the first Summit since 2019 of the two neighbours, Russia and the DPRK, the spirit was nearly jubilant.
“This year, Russia and North Korea will mark a significant anniversary, 75 years of diplomatic relations. The Soviet Union was the first to recognise the newly established Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, said Mr. Putin at a formal dinner with Chairman Kim Jong-un.
“Our relationship dates back to Korea’s struggle for freedom in 1945, when Soviet and Korean soldiers, shoulder to shoulder, smashed the Japanese militarists,” Vladimir Putin said in his opening remarks to Kim Jong-Un and the DPRK delegation, taking a shot at Japan which has been at odds with Pyongyang for many years but very vocally in the past eight months.
Inspecting the Vostochny Cosmodrome with Chairman of State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong-un. Photo credit: Artem Geodakyan, TASS. Photo is enlarged and cropped to fit. Art, cropping, enhancement: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective-Magazine
The picture and its story: Deputy Prime Minister and Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District, Yury Trutnev, Roscosmos Head Yury Borisov and Director General of the Centre for the Operation of Ground-Based Space Infrastructure Nikolai Nestechuk accompanied Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un.
The two leaders visited facilities at the new cosmodrome, including a booster assembly room for Angara launch vehicles, the launching site for the Soyuz-2 space launch vehicle, an Angara launching site under construction, and the launch control centre.
The tour “included other major high-tech clusters, industrial facilities and innovation centres in the Russian Far East,” President Putin said.
“A Korean proverb says, ‘good clothes are new clothes, but a good friend is an old friend.” Russian people say, “an old friend is better than two new ones.’ These popular sayings are fully applicable to modern relations between our countries,” said RF President Vladimir Putin.
Kim Jong-un, Chairman of State Affairs of the DPRK thanked Mr. Putin for his invitation and warm welcome.
“Comrade Putin and I have just had an in-depth discussion on the military-political situation on the Korean Peninsula and in Europe. We have come to a satisfactory consensus regarding the further strengthening of our strategic and tactical cooperation, mutual support and solidarity in the battle for our sovereign right to security and to create guarantees for a lasting peace in the region and the world. We are confident that the Russian army and people will inevitably attain victory in the sacred struggle to punish the evil crowd, which claims the right to hegemony based on the illusion of expansionism, a struggle to create the stability needed for development [Note: translated with some difficulty. Some meanings may be unintended by the speaker.]”
Russia-North Korea talks. Photo: Vladimir Smirnov, TASS
Before Russia-North Korea talks. Photo: Vladimir Smirnov, TASS
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu (right) and Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov before Russia-North Korea talks. Photo: Vladimir Smirnov, TASS
Chairman of State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Kim Jong-un during Russia-North Korea talks at Vostochny Cosmodrome. Photo: Vladimir Smirnov, TASS
Chairman of State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Kim Jong-un during Russia-North Korea talks at Vostochny Cosmodrome. Photo: Vladimir Smirnov, TASS
Russia-North Korea talks. Photo: Vladimir Smirnov, TASS
With Chairman of State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Kim Jong-un Photo: Vladimir Smirnov, TASS