Putin praises North Korea for supporting war in Ukraine en route to rare visit
Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked North Korea for supporting his actions in Ukraine and said their countries will co-operate closely to overcome U.S.-led sanctions, as he headed to Pyongyang on Tuesday for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Putin’s comments appeared in an op-ed piece in North Korean state media hours before he was expected to arrive for a two-day visit as the countries deepen their alignment in the face of separate, intensifying confrontations with Washington.
Putin, who will be making his first trip to North Korea since his first year as Russian president in 2000, said he highly appreciates its firm support of his invasion of Ukraine. He said the countries would continue to “resolutely oppose” what he described as Western ambitions “to hinder the establishment of a multipolarized world order based on mutual respect for justice.”
Putin also said Russia and North Korea will develop trade and payment systems “that are not controlled by the West” and jointly oppose sanctions against the countries, which he described as “unilateral and illegal restrictive measures.”
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Putin said the countries will also expand co-operation in tourism, culture and education.
North Korea is under heavy UN Security Council economic sanctions over its nuclear weapons and missile programs, while Russia is also grappling with sanctions by the United States and its Western partners over its aggression in Ukraine.
Putin has limited his foreign travel since sending troops in to invade Ukraine in 2022, a decision that led to an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court. After North Korea, Putin will visit Vietnam, which is also not a signatory to the jurisdiction of the ICC.
Putin’s visit comes amid growing concerns about an arms arrangement in which Pyongyang provides Moscow with badly needed munitions to fuel Russia’s war in Ukraine in exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers that would enhance the threat posed by Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile program.
In Pyongyang, streets were decorated with Putin’s portraits and Russian flags. A banner hung on a building said: “We warmly welcome the President of the Russian Federation.”
Accusations, denials of weapon use in Ukraine
John Kirby, spokesperson of the U.S. National Security Council, said the deepening relationship between Moscow and Pyongyang is concerning, “not just because of the impacts it’s going to have on the Ukrainian people, because we know North Korean ballistic missiles are still being used to hit Ukrainian targets, but because there could be some reciprocity here that could affect security on the Korean Peninsula.”
“We haven’t seen the parameters of all of that right now, certainly haven’t seen it come to fruition. But we’re certainly going to be watching that very, very closely,” he said.
Military, economic and other exchanges between North Korea and Russia have sharply increased since Kim visited Russia in September for a meeting with Putin, their first since 2019.
U.S. and South Korean officials have accused the North of providing Russia with artillery, missiles and other military equipment to help prolong the war in Ukraine, possibly in return for key military technologies and aid. Both Pyongyang and Moscow have denied accusations about North Korean weapons transfers.
Along with China, Russia has provided political cover for Kim’s continuing efforts to advance his nuclear arsenal, repeatedly blocking U.S.-led efforts to impose fresh UN sanctions on the North over its weapons tests.
In March, a Russian veto at the United Nations ended monitoring of UN sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear program, prompting Western accusations that Moscow is seeking to avoid scrutiny as it buys weapons from Pyongyang for use in Ukraine.
Lim Soosuk, spokesperson of South Korea’s Foreign Ministry, said Seoul has been stressing to Moscow that any co-operation between Russia and North Korea must not “proceed in a direction that violates UN Security Council resolutions or undermines peace and stability in the region.”
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Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest point in years, with the pace of both Kim’s weapons tests and the combined military exercises between the United States, South Korea and Japan intensifying in a cycle of tit-for-tat. The Koreas have also engaged in a Cold War-style psychological warfare that involved North Korea dropping tons of trash on the South with balloons and the South broadcasting anti-Korean propaganda broadcasts with its loudspeakers.
South Korea’s military said soldiers fired warning shots to repel North Korean soldiers who temporarily crossed the rivals’ land border Tuesday for the second time this month. The South’s military said North Korea has been increasing construction activity in front-line border areas, such as installing suspected anti-tank barriers, reinforcing roads and planting land mines.
Published at Tue, 18 Jun 2024 12:09:45 +0000
Russia buying spies to make up for expelled diplomats, German security agency says
Russia has turned increasingly to blackmail and financial incentives to hire Germans to spy for it after the blow dealt to its intelligence services by Europe’s expulsion of some 600 Russian diplomats, Germany’s domestic security service said.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) said Russian intelligence services were spending big to recruit agents in Germany despite Western attempts to limit their operations since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Russia is working hard to compensate for the German government’s reduction in the number of Russian agents in Germany,” BfV chief Thomas Haldenwang told a news conference.
Two German citizens who were charged last August with high treason for spying for Russia had each been paid an estimated 400,000 euros ($589,685 Cdn) for their services, the BfV said.
Diplomats at risk
“The agent fees show that Russia’s services continue to have enormous financial resources with which to pursue their intelligence goals,” it added in the report.
Particularly at risk of being targeted by Russian security services were Germans who lived in Russia or regularly travelled there, including German diplomats, who could be vulnerable to blackmail attempts.
“As soon as they have compromising information about their targets, these services are not shy about employing aggressive recruitment techniques,” they added.
Earlier this month, NATO also reaffirmed its concerns about Russian espionage and called for tougher action in response to what it said was a campaign of hostile activities including acts of sabotage and cyberattacks. Germany is one of 32 NATO states.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, was a rude awakening for many in Germany’s security establishment after years in which Berlin had attempted to bind Moscow into the international legal order through a web of trade and especially energy links.
A recent surge in support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and the authoritarian-left BSW party has also helped trigger a major rethink. Both parties often echo Kremlin talking points on the war, including in their opposition to providing Ukraine with arms to defend itself.
Russia has proved adaptable in finding ways of influencing events in Germany even after its media channels were banned and 600 of its diplomats stationed around Europe were expelled, the BfV said.
Far-right influence
Some of those influencing efforts have shifted to the social media platform Telegram, which is difficult to police, while spies are now being attached to international organizations. Russian officers tasked with handling informants are now travelling to do so rather than being based in Germany.
Far-right groups are also a receptive audience for Russian influence operations. These include the Reichsbuerger (Citizens of the Reich) conspiracy theorists, some of whom are now on trial for plotting a coup against the German democratic order for which they had sought Russian support.
Among new conspiracies circulating in far-right circles, the BfV said, is a groundless belief that the war in Ukraine is intended to create a depopulated wasteland in the country’s east to which the population of Israel could be relocated. It said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, being Jewish, was falsely presented as being one of the conspirators.
Published at Tue, 18 Jun 2024 13:52:21 +0000