North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, accompanied by government officials, departs Pyongyang, North Korea, to visit Russia, September 10, 2023, in this image released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on September 12, 2023.
Pyongyang and Moscow have denied that North Korea would supply arms to Russia, which has expended vast stocks of weapons in more than 18 months of war.
"The presence of Jo Chun Ryong indicates that North Korea and Russia will conclude some type of agreement for munitions purchases," said Michael Madden, a North Korea leadership expert at the Washington-based Stimson Center.
The U.S. State Department said any transfer of arms from North Korea to Russia would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions, which ban any arms transactions with North Korea.
Russia had voted, along with China, to approve Security Council resolutions as late as 2017 punishing North Korea for ballistic missile launches and nuclear tests.
Persons:
Kim Jong Un, Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, Kim, Dmitry Peskov, Putin, Peskov, Jo Chun Ryong, Michael Madden, Chang Ho, Matthew Miller, Sergei Shoigu, Hyunsu Yim, Hyonhee Shin, Josh Smith, Kiyoshi Takenaka, Lidia Kelly, Steve Holland, Humeyra Pamuk, Jack Kim, Gerry Doyle
Organizations:
North, Korean Central News Agency, KCNA, REUTERS Acquire, Rights, Kyodo, South Korea's Defence, TASS, Eastern Economic, OF, North Korean, Munitions Industry, Stimson, . South Korean, The U.S . State Department, Department, Russian Defence, Reuters, Thomson
Locations:
Pyongyang, North Korea, Russia, Rights SEOUL, WASHINGTON, Washington, Khasan, South, China, Ukraine, Vladivostok, Moscow, Korea, The, Seoul, Tokyo, Melbourne