The 2023 North Korea–Russia summit was a summit meeting between

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

where North Korean

General Secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...

Kim Jong Un Kim Jong Un (born 8 January 1983 or 1984) is a North Korean politician and dictator who has served as supreme leader of North Korea since 2011 and general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is the third son of Kim ...

met with Russian

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

on 13 September 2023. The meeting was held at the

Vostochny Cosmodrome The Vostochny Cosmodrome () is a Russian space launch facility in the Amur Oblast, located above the 51st parallel north in the Russian Far East. It was built to help reduce Russia’s reliance on the Baikonur Cosmodrome which is located on lan ...

in the Russian Far East. It was part of a visit by Kim Jong Un between 12–17 September. It was Kim Jong Un's first foreign visit since the start of the

COVID-19 pandemic in North Korea The COVID-19 pandemic in North Korea was part of a global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a novel infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). North Korea confirmed its first case ...

in 2020.

Meeting

Background

In early September 2023, it was reported that Kim Jong Un would be visiting Russia sometime that month. On 10 September, the meeting was confirmed by both sides after Kim Jong Un departed

Pyongyang Pyongyang () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is sometimes labeled as the "Capital of the Revolution" (). Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. Accordi ...

with his personal armoured train that he had previously used to visit Russia in 2019. Russian defence minister

Sergei Shoigu Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu; , . (born 21 May 1955) is a Russian politician and military officer who has served as secretary of the Security Council since 2024. He served as Minister of Defence of Russia from 2012 to 2024. Shoigu has served a ...

attended official celebrations of the 70th anniversary of "

Victory Day Victory Day is a commonly used name for public holidays in various countries, where it commemorates a nation's triumph over a hostile force in a war or the liberation of a country from hostile occupation. In many cases, multiple countries may ob ...

" in Pyongyang a month prior. Since its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has faced severe labor shortages, lack of international support and ammunition shortages. There was speculation that the meeting was to centre around the possibility of Russia receiving large amounts of North Korean ammunition stockpiles from the Soviet era, in exchange for Russian help in developing technology and resource aid.

Visit

Kim arrived in the North Korean leaders' train in Khasan,

Primorsky Krai Primorsky Krai, informally known as Primorye, is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (a krais of Russia, krai) of Russia, part of the Far Eastern Federal District in the Russian Far East. The types of inhabited localities in Russia, ...

, Russia on 12 September, where he met with Minister of National Resources and Environment Alexander Kozlov and Primorsky Krai governor Oleg Kozhemyako. He then left, and continued, arriving at the

on 13 September, where he met with Putin. During the meeting, Kim once again gave his support for Russia's " sacred fight" against the west, expressing his "...support for all the measures taken by the Russian government, and etakes this opportunity again to affirm that ewill always be with Russia." When asked if Russia would help North Korea build satellites, Putin said "that's why heycame here." Kim, after the summit, visited an advanced fighter jet manufacturing plant under sanctions, in the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur in Russia on September 15. On 16 September, Kim visited the Mariinsky Theater in Vladivostok, where he watched

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popula ...

's ''The Sleeping Beauty''. He also visited the

Far Eastern Federal University Far Eastern Federal University (, ''Dalnevostochny federalny universitet'') is a public university in Vladivostok, Primorsky Krai, Russia. In 2023 the university was ranked #434 by QS World University Rankings and among the 100 best universit ...

on 17 September, as well as the Primorsky Oceanarium. Kim's trip concluded that day.

Reactions

President of

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

Alexander Lukashenko Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (also transliterated as Alyaksandr Ryhoravich Lukashenka; born 30 August 1954) is a Belarusian politician who has been the first and only president of Belarus since the office's establishment in 1994, making hi ...

proposed a three-way cooperation pact with Russia and North Korea. United States government officials expressed concern with the visit, already seeing North Korea's open support for Russia, and warned that a circumvention of sanctions in the context of military support in the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

would prompt the United States to identify the methods used to "at least limit their ability to be effective".

United Nations Secretary-General The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or UNSECGEN) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the United Nations System#Six principal organs, six principal organs of ...

António Guterres António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres (born 30 April 1949) is a Portuguese politician and diplomat who is serving as the ninth and current secretary-general of the United Nations since 2017. A member of the Socialist Party (Portugal), ...

said that "any form of cooperation of any country with North Korea must respect the sanctions regime that was imposed by the

Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...

References

External links