North agrees to increase 'strategic cooperation' with Russia

North Korea

Published: 09 Feb. 2022, 18:34 Updated: 09 Feb. 2022, 19:03

North agrees to increase 'strategic cooperation' with Russia

A photo released by the Korean Central News Agency of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok in the Russian Far East on April 25, 2019, during their summit. [YONHAP]

North Korea has agreed to increase "strategic cooperation" with Russia, raising the specter of the formation of an anti-U.S. bloc at a time of increased tensions between Washington and Moscow over Ukraine.

According to the North Korean Foreign Ministry, Rim Chon-il, the vice foreign minister in charge of relations with Moscow, met with Russian Ambassador Aleksandr Matsegora on Monday to discuss bilateral relations and common interests.

“The two sides exchanged opinions on [North] Korea-Russia relations and regional and international affairs, which are of great interest, and have decided to further strengthen strategic cooperation between the two countries in the future,” the North’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

While the ministry did not specify the exact topics discussed between Rim and Matsegora, it is likely that their conversation touched on the revival of trade between Russia and the North, which until recently maintained an almost complete self-imposed blockade on overland trade since it closed its borders in January 2020 in response to the first reported outbreak of Covid-19 in China.

The meeting follows on a Feb. 3 meeting between Shin Hong-chol, the North Korean ambassador to Moscow, and Aleksey Chekunkov, minister for the development of the Russian Far East and Arctic, where the two sides also discussed bilateral trade relations, according to the Russian ministry.

After a near-decade of deteriorating relations between the Soviet Union — later the Russian Federation — and the North, beginning with the premiership of the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and continuing with first Russian President Boris Yelstin, relations between Moscow and Pyongyang improved after current President Vladimir Putin first took office in 1999.

Although Russia joined the other four permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — the United States, China, Britain and France — in imposing sanctions on North Korea for conducting its first nuclear test in May 2009, the country has also opposed the use of force against the recalcitrant regime and more recent sanctions proposals forwarded by the United States.

Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, on Tuesday slammed additional sanctions against Pyongyang as creating a “toxic atmosphere” and impeding dialogue with Pyongyang, while also linking them with the threat of U.S. sanctions against his own country for its military build-up along the border with Ukraine.

While Polyanskiy did not directly mention tensions over Ukraine, he denounced "unilateral" measures that hurt peace efforts and interfere with the sovereignty of nations, such as in Syria, Belarus, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Afghanistan, Burma and Mali.

The Russian envoy was joined in his opposition to additional sanctions by China's ambassador to the United Nations Zhang Jun, who said that such measures have "serious humanitarian consequences."

That argument was disputed by Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who said that North Korea's dire economic situation was the country's own fault.

“The number one barrier to sending humanitarian assistance into the DPRK is the DPRK self-imposed border closures, not international sanctions," Thomas-Greenfield said, referring to the North by the acronym of its official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

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