Russian flights suggest transfers of military tech to North Korea

A Russian military plane traveled between Pyongyang and military sites in the Russian Far East several times over the weekend, according to a report by NK News published on Monday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visits an aircraft manufacturing plant in the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the Khabarovsk region, Russia, on Sept. 15, 2023. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

A Russian military plane traveled between Pyongyang and military sites in the Russian Far East several times over the weekend, according to a report by NK News published on Monday.

The unusual flight pattern has raised suspicions that the North is receiving air and naval technologies through contact with Russia.

According to data from aircraft route tracking site Flightradar24 examined by NK News, an Ilyushin Il-62M aircraft belonging to the Russian Air Force flew from Vladivostok to Pyongyang on Sept. 20 and stayed at Sunan International Airport for about an hour before taking off at 12:37 p.m.

The plane landed in Khabarovsk, the administrative center of the Khabarovsk region, at 2:21 p.m. the same day without returning to Vladivostok.

The following day, the plane departed from Khabarovsk and made a stopover in Vladivostok before landing in Pyongyang at 9 p.m. on Sept. 22. After staying in Pyongyang for about four hours, the plane flew from Pyongyang to Vladivostok, where it made another stopover before taking off for western Russia.

The plane disappeared from data on Flightradar24 near Yaroslavl, located 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of Moscow.

According to NK News, the Russian military aircraft’s movements began the same day a Russian government plane flew from Vladivostok to Wonsan, a North Korean port and naval base located on the eastern coast of Kangwon Province.

While the purpose of the two aircraft’s flights to and from the North remains unclear, the Khabarovsk region is home to many Russian military factories.

During his trip to Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin in September last year, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un toured a high-tech fighter jet production plant located in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, a city in the Khabarovsk region.

At their summit at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a leading Russian spaceport in the Amur region, the two leaders pledged to strengthen their military and economic cooperation.

In a subsequent summit held in June in Pyongyang, the pair signed a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement, which included a mutual defense clause.

The treaty signed between Kim and Putin closely resembles the 1961 treaty between North Korea and the Soviet Union and is the most muscular accord of its kind between Pyongyang and Moscow since the Cold War.

According to Russian state news agency TASS, Kim expressed “full support” for Russia in its war on Ukraine and promised to strengthen strategic cooperation with Moscow and said North Korea-Russia relations are “entering a new period of prosperity.”

After the summit, Putin said Russia could pursue military-technical cooperation with North Korea without offering details.

In response, South Korea has said it will reconsider its existing policy not to supply arms to Ukraine, potentially overturning its position that it does not provide weapons to countries at war.

Seoul has so far provided military supplies such as first aid kits, medicine, portable mine detectors and protective gear to Ukraine but has maintained the position of not providing lethal weapons to Kyiv.

The announcement prompted Putin to say it would be a “very big mistake” for South Korea to provide weapons to Ukraine during a visit to Vietnam that took place after his trip to the North.

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