Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un vow ‘sacred’ battle against West
Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin have had a historic meeting in Russia and issued a chilling warning to “evil” West. See the pictures.
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Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un have vowed to fight a “sacred” battle against the West after holding talks followed by a lunch in the North Korean leader’s honour.
Jong-un told Putin that he was sure that the Russian army and people would triumph against “evil” in a two-hour meeting.
The leaders are believed to have carried out sanctions-busting negotiations on supplying weapons to bolster Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Jong-un was pictured waving goodbye as he departed after the meeting and boarded his bullet train.
The pair followed their discussions with a decadent banquet in the North Korean’s honour.
Jong-un told Putin via a translator that he was sure that the Russian army would triumph against “evil”.
“We are confident that the Russian army and people will win a great victory in the just fight to punish evil groups who pursue hegemony, expansion, and ambition,” Jong-un told Putin, raising a toast.
Later, Putin raised a toast “to the future strengthening of co-operation and friendship between our countries”.
“For the wellbeing and prosperity of our nations, for the health of the chairman and all of those present,” he said
While the exact details of their discussions are not known, Putin did reveal that Jong-un showed a particular interest in the Russian space program.
Jong-un and Putin only had one meeting, and Kremlin spokesman Dmirtry Peskov said the North Korean dictator would return home immediately after the lunch.
It is thought that Jong-un planned to offer his ageing Soviet-era weapons to Putin to aide in his fight in Ukraine.
According to a report in The Sun, the meal the two leaders shared was said to feature a salad of duck, fig and nectarine followed by Russian “pelmeni” dumplings made with Kamchatka crab and then a White Amur fish soup and a sorbet from sea buckthorn.
For the main course, the leaders had a choice of sturgeon with mushrooms and potatoes or marbled beef with grilled vegetables.
For dessert, they were offered red bilberries from the taiga with pine nuts and condensed milk.
The North Korean leader arrived at the Vostochny Cosmodrome on his armoured train on Wednesday morning local time after crossing into Russia the day before.
Putin told Jong-un he was “very glad to see” him, while the North Korean leader thanked his Russian counterpart for the invitation to Russia.
Speaking at the space base prior to their one-on-one chat, Putin told reporters that the pair would discuss “all the issues” at their meeting.
Asked if Russia would help Jong-un build satellites, Putin replied: “That’s why we came here. The leader of the DPRK shows great interest in rocket engineering, they are also trying to develop space.”
North Korea experienced failures in recent months as it tried to place a spy satellite into orbit – but has vowed to try for a third time in October.
Jong-un’s space ambitions are likely tied to his efforts to develop more powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles that are designed to reach the US mainland as space-launch rockets share the same core technologies with those weapons, experts say.
Some analysts say Jong-un could also seek Russian help in developing ballistic-missile submarines and nuclear propulsion submarines.
Still, it would take considerable time, resources and technological improvements for the heavily sanctioned nation to build a fleet of at least several submarines that could travel quietly and execute attacks reliably.
Putin is said to be looking for “partners in destruction” after isolating from most of the world, with Russia expert Keir Giles saying Moscow and its allies are “a coalition of countries that want to bring down the world order as we know it”.
“If Russia now decides that it no longer needs to be a party to the sanctions on North Korea that were supposed to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons, then that is a major step forward to destabilising the situation in the Far East,” he said.
During their tour of the Cosmodrome, Jong-un told Putin that Russia was fighting a “sacred” war with the West and he would “always” support Putin.
“Russia has risen to a sacred fight to protect its sovereignty and security … against the hegemonic forces,” Jong-un told him.
“We will always support the decisions of President Putin and the Russian leadership … and we will be together in the fight against imperialism.”
Jong-un – who rarely leaves his country – is reportedly willing to hand Putin artillery shells and antitank missiles in exchange for satellite and nuclear submarine technology.
The White House has warned that arms negotiations between North Korea and Russia are “actively advancing”.
In return for ammunition, North Korea will likely want shipments of food and energy and transfers of sophisticated weapons technologies.
It’s unclear how far Jong-un and Putin’s military co-operation could go – but any sign of warming relations will worry rivals like the US and South Korea.
KIM ARRIVES IN RUSSIA FOR HISTORIC MEETING
The North Korean leader arrived in Russia on Tuesday local time in a historic visit the United States warned could see the hermit kingdom provide material support for Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Making a rare foreign trip and his first since the pandemic, Jong-un was welcomed at Khasan train station after departing Pyongyang Sunday evening.
He was greeted by Russia’s Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Alexander Kozlov while the country’s president, Vladimir Putin, attended the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, the Far East city closest to the North Korean border.
The White House warned last week that North Korea would “pay a price” if it supplies Russia with weaponry for the conflict in Ukraine.
Defying the warnings, Jong-un left North Korea for Russia on Sunday, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
He was accompanied by top North Korean military officials, including officials in charge of weapons production and space technology, it added.
Dmitry Sergeyevich Peskov, Putin’s press secretary, said the two leaders would “co-operate on sensitive areas that should not be the subject of public disclosure and announcements”.
Jong-un travelled to Russia with his top military officials including Korean People’s Army Marshal Pak Jong Chon and Munitions Industry Department Director Jo Chun Ryong, analysts said.
This indicated the Putin-Kim summit “is likely to heavily focus on Russia and North Korea’s possible military co-operation,” said Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
The United States described Putin as desperate in seeking a meeting with Jong-un.
“Having to travel across the length of his own country to meet with an international pariah to ask for assistance in a war that he expected to win in the opening month, I would characterise it as him begging for assistance,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
“I will remind both countries that any transfer of arms from North Korea to Russia would be in violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions,” he added.
UKRAINE CLAIMS LIMITED GAINS
Kyiv said on Monday its forces had recaptured clutches of land in south and east Ukraine, and fought their way into a village in the Donetsk region last week.
Kyiv launched a counteroffensive against entrenched Russian positions in June but progress has been limited, spurring political debate in the West over support for Kyiv.
Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar said Ukrainian forces had pushed back around the war-battered city of Bakhmut in the east, which was captured by Russia in May.
Kyiv also said on Monday its forces had retaken control of an oil and gas drilling platform in the Black Sea that had been controlled by Moscow since 2015.
“Ukraine regains control of the so-called ‘Vyshki-Boyka’ (platform),” Kyiv’s military intelligence said in a statement.
“During one phase of the operation, a battle took place between Ukrainian special forces on boats and a Russian Su-30 fighter jet,” it said, claiming that Moscow’s plane was “hit and forced to retreat.”
RUSSIA DESTROYS US SUPPLIED SPEEDBOATS
Russia says it destroyed three military speedboats carrying Ukrainian soldiers in the Black Sea which Moscow claims were headed toward annexed Crimea.
“In the western part of the Black Sea … naval aviation of the Black Sea Fleet destroyed three military Willard Sea Force speedboats”, which are US-made and were carrying Ukrainian armed forces, the Russian defence ministry said on Telegram on Sunday.
The boats were “heading in the direction of the Crimean peninsula” annexed by Russia in 2014, according to the statement.
On August 24, Ukraine said it carried out an operation on the Crimean peninsula, where it raised its national flag.
Ukrainian special forces had come in from the sea, landing on the western part of the peninsula, before leaving “without casualties”, according to Ukrainian military intelligence.
On Sunday, Ukraine said its forces were leading a difficult counteroffensive and had made modest headway in an area of the southern front line.
“We are moving forward! Defence Forces in the Tavria area have advanced more than one kilometre,” Ukrainian army commander Oleksandr Tarnavskyi said in his daily update.
MOSCOW CLAIMS PUTIN’S PARTY WINS VOTES IN ANNEXED UKRAINE REGIONS
It comes as Russia claimed that the United Russia party, which staunchly backs President Vladimir Putin, had won local ballots in four Ukrainian regions occupied by Russia.
The Kremlin claimed to have annexed the eastern and southern territories last year despite not having full military control over them. The elections have been dismissed by Ukraine and its allies as a sham.
Data published by Moscow and proxy officials showed voters in the war-battered territories, where Ukraine is clawing back ground, had backed United Russia with more than 70 per cent of the ballot in each territory, state-run news agencies reported.
The polls also being held across Russia came ahead of presidential elections next year expected to prolong Putin’s rule until at least 2030.
His opponents are in exile or jail and Moscow has criminalised criticism of its conflict in Ukraine and detained thousands for speaking out.
Authorities set up mobile polling booths days ahead of the vote in the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia, where Moscow said a polling station was attacked by a Ukrainian drone.
In Donetsk, which has been partially controlled by separatists since 2014, Kremlin-installed authorities said Ukrainian shelling had injured election officials.
Voting was also taking place in Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014. Ukrainian security services said they had compiled a list of “collaborators” helping to organise the voting and vowed retribution.
SPANISH AID WORKER KILLED
A Spanish voluntary aid worker was killed in Ukraine after the vehicle in which she was travelling was hit by a projectile, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Sunday.
Spanish media identified the woman as Emma Igual, the 32-year-old director of Road to Relief, a non-profit organisation dedicated to evacuating civilians from the front line in Ukraine.
The NGO said in a post on its Instagram account that a Canadian aid worker was also killed and two others wounded when their vehicle “came under Russian attack” in Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine on Saturday morning.
A vehicle with four international volunteers from Road to Relief NGO was traveling to assess the needs of civilian population from Sloviansk to Bakhmut. It came under Russian attack, which killed Emma Igual from Spain and Anthony Ignat from Canada.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) September 10, 2023
Two more volunteers, Ruben… pic.twitter.com/nigTBQ1Ll5
In “a direct hit, the vehicle flipped over and lit on fire,” it said.
A German and a Swedish aid worker “were badly injured with shrapnel wounds and burns but are now stable in separate hospitals far from the scene,” it added in the post published on Saturday.
Meanwhile, NATO member Romania said it had summoned the Russian embassy’s charge d’affairs following the discovery of fragments of a drone “similar to those used by the Russian army”.
Romanian soldiers found the fragments in the area of Plauru in Tulcea county across the border from Ukraine on Saturday.
State secretary Iulian Fota met the Russian diplomat the same day to transmit “Romania’s protest against the violation of the Romanian airspace,” the foreign ministry said.
UKRAINE: ‘WE NEED MORE HEAVY WEAPONS’
Ukraine said it shot down most of the three dozen drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack mainly directed around the capital of Kyiv.
The latest attack comes as Ukraine’s forces are urging more Western support for their gruelling counteroffensive to gain back land in the east and south.
“We recorded the launch of 33 Shahed (drones) in the direction of Kyiv … 26 were destroyed,” the Ukrainian Air Force said.
Earlier, officials said air defence downed 25 out of 32 drones.
“Drones entered the capital in groups and from different directions,” Sergiy Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, wrote on Telegram.
Debris fell in several districts, damaging an apartment in a multistorey building, as well as road surfaces and power lines, he added, saying one person was injured.
Ukrainian emergency services published photos of rescuers putting out fires in several districts.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a resident suffered from an “acute stress attack” and was receiving medical assistance after debris fell in the central Podil district.
Kyiv had seen drone and missile attacks on an almost nightly basis last winter and spring, as Russia pounded cities across Ukraine in a bid to wipe out Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and destroy morale.
The strikes had since become less frequent, but last month the capital faced the “most powerful strike” since spring, with more than 20 drones and missiles destroyed.
And as summer is coming to a close, Klitschko on Tuesday told journalists that the city was already preparing for a “tough” winter.
In a conference in the capital on Friday and Saturday, officials said the West should not lose any time and provide Kyiv with powerful arms to back up its army pushing Russian troops out of the territories it seized.
Newly appointed Defence Minister Rustem Umerov called for more military equipment.
“We are grateful for all the support provided … We need more heavy weapons,” Umerov said.
He added: “We need them today. We need them now.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the provision of weapons was slowing down, hampering the counteroffensive against Russian positions.
Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar acknowledged that “the enemy is strong, they have more people and weaponry.”
Ukraine is leading a difficult counterassault since June, a far cry from the lightning successes of last fall.
But this time, Ukrainian forces are contending with well-entrenched Russian defences built over several months of occupation.
Deputy Intelligence Chief Vadym Skibitsky estimated Saturday that Russia has more than 420,000 soldiers in the east and south of Ukraine, including Crimea.
The number, he said, does not include special law enforcement units “that maintain occupation authorities on our territories.”
Russia last year claimed to have annexed four regions — Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — despite never full controlling them.
Residents of those areas were expected to cast a ballot for local administrations in votes ending Sunday, which have been widely denounced as a sham.
Kyiv called on allies to condemn the “fake” vote.
Its SBU security service warned it has a list of “collaborators” helping organise the voting, promising punishment.
But Kremlin-installed officials pressed on with the vote, seeking long-term office in areas Kyiv has vowed to recapture.
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Originally published as Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un vow ‘sacred’ battle against West
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