Russian foreign minister meets Kim Jong-un during visit

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during his visit to Pyongyang, Russia's Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

In this footage broadcast by the North's state-controlled Korean Central Television, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, right, is greeted by North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui at Pyongyang International Airport upon his arrival on Wednesday evening. [YONHAP]

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during his visit to Pyongyang, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

The ministry did not provide any details of the meeting, but Moscow’s state-run TASS news agency reported that their talks lasted just over an hour.

Russian state media reported Thursday that Lavrov thanked North Korea for backing his country’s invasion of Ukraine and signaled that Moscow and Pyongyang could draw even closer during an evening reception to mark his visit.

Lavrov’s visit follows last month’s summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East, where the two leaders agreed to strengthen military ties.

Their meeting at the spaceport and Kim’s subsequent tour of two Russian aircraft factories heightened speculation that Russia could provide the North with advanced military and satellite reconnaissance technology in return for much-needed materiel and ammunition to continue its war in Ukraine.

In his remarks at a Wednesday evening reception, the Russian foreign minister said his visit would serve as a “significant occasion to bring about substantial results” to implement Kim and Putin’s agreement, according to the North’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Lavrov also voiced Russia’s “complete support” for North Korean policies to defend its national interests and commended the regime for remaining “unfazed by any pressure from the United States and the West.”

According to the transcript of his reception speech, which the Russian Foreign Ministry released, Lavrov also thanked the North for its “unwavering and principled support” for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow has called a “special military operation.”

In response, North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui expressed hope that Lavrov's visit would elevate Moscow and Pyongyang’s “comprehensive and constructive relations.”

After talks with Choe, Lavrov told reporters that joint military maneuvers by South Korea, the United States and Japan were a cause for concern, according to Russia’s state-run RIA news agency.

Talks between Lavrov and the North Korean government are expected to address ways to expand cooperation between the two countries, including a possible visit by the Russian president to Pyongyang.

Kim extended an invitation to Putin to visit the North during his trip to Russia.

In response to the news of Lavrov’s visit to the North, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry urged Pyongyang and Moscow to cooperate in bringing about “peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula,” but also said it is closely monitoring the Russian foreign minister’s visit.

In a press briefing held Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk reiterated South Korea’s position that the North should “never be recognized as a nuclear-weapon state regardless of its actions and assertions” and that international sanctions “will only deepen” should Pyongyang persist in its pursuit of weapons banned by successive United Nations Security Council resolutions, which include nuclear weapons and launches involving ballistic missile technology.

In an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Wednesday, South Korean Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho said that Seoul “cannot help but seek powerful sanctions against Russia and North Korea with the United States and other countries” if Russia offers military technology to North Korea.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]