RUSSIAN Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in North Korea today, Russian news agencies said, as Western concerns mount over deepening military ties between the historic allies.

The envoy’s two-day visit is expected to focus in part on laying the groundwork for a future trip to the country by President Vladimir Putin, a Kremlin spokesman told the TASS news agency earlier.

It came a day after Moscow dismissed the United States’ allegations that North Korea had begun supplying Russia with arms for its war in Ukraine.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un last month travelled to Russia and invited Putin to visit his country.

Kim’s summit with Putin fanned Western fears Pyongyang could provide Moscow with weapons for its drawn-out war in Ukraine.

On Friday, the US said arms shipments were already underway, with North Korea delivering more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Russia in recent weeks.

Pyongyang was seeking a range of military assistance in return, including advanced technologies, White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

According to a graphic provided by the White House, a load of containers was shipped by sea from Najin in North Korea to Dunay in Russia between September 1 and October 1.

They were delivered by rail to an ammunition depot about 290km from the Ukrainian border.

But the Kremlin yesterday said the US had no evidence weapons were being shipped.

“They report this all the time, without providing any proof,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies when asked about the arms shipments.

Washington-based analyst Beyond Parallel last week separately released satellite images showing what it termed an “unprecedented” build-up of train traffic along Russia’s border with North Korea.

The flurry of activity “likely indicates North Korea’s supply of arms and munitions to Russia”, the group said in its report.

While Russia has ramped up production of shells this year to a forecast 2.5 million, analysts suggested that could fall short of its needs on the battlefield.

Moscow’s forces are firing about 60,000 rounds per day, showed Ukrainian figures.

North Korea is a mass producer of conventional weaponry and known to be sitting on large stocks of Soviet-era war material – albeit in unknown condition.

Top priority

During his trip through Russia’s far east last month, Kim said he would make North Korea’s bilateral ties with Moscow the country’s “number one priority”.

Russia and North Korea are both under a raft of international sanctions – Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, and Pyongyang for its testing of nuclear weapons.

The tightening of their alliance came as relations between the two Koreas were at a historic low, with the North conducting a record-breaking series of weapons tests this year and recently enshrining its status as a nuclear state in its constitution.

South Korea in turn moved to tighten its security arrangements with traditional ally the US while entering a new trilateral arrangement that included Japan.

Both US President Joe Biden and South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk-yeol have declared any use of nuclear weapons by the North would mean “the end” of the regime in Pyongyang.

A US B-52 bomber capable of carrying nuclear weapons landed yesterday at Cheongju Airport, about 100km south of Seoul, Yonhap news agency reported.

Its arrival came less than a week after the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan docked in the southern port city of Busan, provoking anger from Pyongyang.

While B-52s have previously taken part in joint exercises over the peninsula, it marked the first time one has landed in the country since at least 2000, when such record-keeping began.

The bomber did a flyover at South Korea’s massive defence exhibition before setting down in Cheongju.

South Korean media today reported the bomber was expected to take part in a weekend aerial exercise involving planes from South Korea, Japan and the US. – AFP, October 18, 2023.