Putin and North Korea’s Kim Discuss Military Matters, Ukraine War and Satellites

In this pool photo distributed by Sputnik agency, Russia's President Vladimir Putin (Centre L) shakes hands with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (2nd R) during their meeting at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Amur region on September 13, 2023. (AFP)
In this pool photo distributed by Sputnik agency, Russia's President Vladimir Putin (Centre L) shakes hands with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (2nd R) during their meeting at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Amur region on September 13, 2023. (AFP)
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Putin and North Korea’s Kim Discuss Military Matters, Ukraine War and Satellites

In this pool photo distributed by Sputnik agency, Russia's President Vladimir Putin (Centre L) shakes hands with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (2nd R) during their meeting at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Amur region on September 13, 2023. (AFP)
In this pool photo distributed by Sputnik agency, Russia's President Vladimir Putin (Centre L) shakes hands with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (2nd R) during their meeting at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Amur region on September 13, 2023. (AFP)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin met for a rare summit on Wednesday at which they discussed military matters, the war in Ukraine and possible Russian help for the secretive Communist state's satellite program.

Putin showed Kim around Russia's most advanced space rocket launch site in Russia's Far East and discussed the possibility of sending a North Korean cosmonaut into space. Kim, who arrived by train from North Korea, asked detailed questions about rockets as Putin showed him around the Vostochny Cosmodrome.

After the tour, Putin, 70, and Kim, 39, held talks for several hours with their ministers and then discussed world affairs and possible areas of cooperation one-on-one, followed by an opulent lunch of Russian "pelmeni" dumplings stuffed with Kamchatka crab and then sturgeon with mushrooms and potatoes.

Kim raised a toast to Putin's health, to the victory of "great Russia" and to Korean-Russian friendship, predicting victory for Moscow in its "sacred fight" with the West in the Ukraine war.

"I firmly believe that the heroic Russian army and people will brilliantly inherit their victories and traditions and vigorously demonstrate their noble dignity and honor on the two fronts of military operations and building a powerful nation," Kim told Putin.

"The Russian army and people will certainly win a great victory in the sacred struggle for the punishment of a great evil that claims hegemony and feeds an expansionist illusion," Kim added, raising his glass.

US and South Korean officials have expressed concern that Kim could provide weapons and ammunition to Russia, which has expended vast stocks in more than 18 months of war in Ukraine. Moscow and Pyongyang have denied such intentions.

Putin gave numerous hints that military cooperation was discussed but disclosed few details. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu attended the talks. The Kremlin said sensitive discussions between neighbors were a private matter.

When asked by Russian media, who were given significant access at the summit, if Russia would help Kim build satellites, Putin said: "That's why we came here."

For Russia, the summit was an opportunity to needle the United States, the big power supporter of Ukraine, though it was unclear just how far Putin was prepared to go in fulfilling any North Korean wish lists for technology.

Putin said Kim now planned to visit military and civilian aviation factories in the Russian city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur and to inspect Russia's Pacific fleet in Vladivostok.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Pyongyang for more talks next month, the Kremlin said.

'Comrades'

Putin and Kim called each other "comrades" at lunch and Putin repeatedly reminded Kim that it was the Soviet Union that backed North Korea - and was first to recognize it just over 75 years to the day since it was established.

Amid the Ukraine war, which has become a grinding artillery war of attrition, the United States and Kyiv's other allies are watching to see if Kim's visit paves the way for a supply of artillery shells to Russia.

Britain on Wednesday urged North Korea to end arms talks with Russia and said Kim's visit showed how isolated Moscow has become on the world stage.

Russia has joined China in opposing new sanctions on North Korea, blocking a US-led push and publicly splitting the UN Security Council for the first time since it started punishing Pyongyang in 2006.

Asked about military cooperation, Putin said Russia complied with international rules but that there were opportunities to explore.

The choice to meet at Vostochny Cosmodrome - a symbol of Russia's ambitions as a space power - was notable, as North Korea has twice failed to launch reconnaissance satellites in the past four months.

After showing Kim around a building where the Angara, Russia's new 42.7-meter space launch rocket, is assembled, Putin said Kim had shown a "great interest in rocket engineering" during the visit.

Ahead of his meeting with Putin, Kim signed the visitor book in Korean: "The glory to Russia, which gave birth to the first space conquerors, will be immortal."

Ballistic missiles

As Kim was making his way through the forests of Russia by train, North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles from an area near the capital, Pyongyang, into the sea off its east coast.

It was the first such launch by the North while Kim was abroad, analysts said, demonstrating an increased level of delegation and more refined control systems for the country's nuclear and missile programs.

Kim had previously made just seven trips abroad in his 12 years in power, all in 2018 and 2019. He also briefly stepped across the inter-Korean border twice.

The make-up of Kim's delegation to Russia, with the notable presence of Munitions Industry Department Director Jo Chun Ryong, suggested an agenda heavy on defense industry cooperation, analysts said.

"In Korea, there is a proverb: good clothes are those that are new, but old friends are best friends. And our people say: an old friend is better than two new ones," Putin told Kim.

"This folk wisdom is fully applicable to modern relations between our countries."



Canada Liberals Vote to Replace Trudeau as PM

(FILES) Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau speaks at a press conference in the Old Port of Montreal in Montreal, Canada, on February 19, 2025. (Photo by ANDREJ IVANOV / AFP)
(FILES) Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau speaks at a press conference in the Old Port of Montreal in Montreal, Canada, on February 19, 2025. (Photo by ANDREJ IVANOV / AFP)
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Canada Liberals Vote to Replace Trudeau as PM

(FILES) Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau speaks at a press conference in the Old Port of Montreal in Montreal, Canada, on February 19, 2025. (Photo by ANDREJ IVANOV / AFP)
(FILES) Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau speaks at a press conference in the Old Port of Montreal in Montreal, Canada, on February 19, 2025. (Photo by ANDREJ IVANOV / AFP)

Canada's Liberal Party elects a new leader this weekend to replace Justin Trudeau as prime minister and take charge of confronting the threats posed by US President Donald Trump.

Trudeau, who became Liberal leader in 2013 before taking over as prime minister two years later, announced in early January that he planned to resign, overcome by dismal polling numbers and internal party dissent, AFP reported.

Before Christmas, the opposition Conservatives looked certain to win a general election that must be held by October but could be called within weeks.

Trade chaos with the United States and Trump's repeated musing about annexing Canada have upended the political climate and surveys show the Liberals gaining ground.

"The context is completely unprecedented. Right now the only thing that matters to Canadians is 'who is the right person to take on Donald Trump?'" Frederic Boily of the University of Alberta told AFP.

Four candidates qualified to run in the Liberal leadership race but only two are seen as viable contenders.

The front-runner is Mark Carney, who led the Bank of Canada before becoming the first non-Briton to serve as governor of the Bank of England.

His main challenger is Chrystia Freeland, Trudeau's former finance minister who dramatically broke with the prime minister in December, issuing a scathing resignation letter that partly pushed him to resign.

Both Carney and Freeland have anchored their campaigns on the Trump threat.

Carney, who has never held elected office, has sought to remind Liberal party voters that he led Canada's central bank through the 2008-2009 financial crisis and steered the Bank of England through the turbulence that followed the Brexit vote.

"Canada faces one of the most serious crises in our history. I know how to manage crises and I know how to build strong economies," he said during a leadership debate.

Freeland has warned that Trump "is posing the gravest challenge our country has faced since the Second World War," and highlighted her experience negotiating directly with Trump's first administration.

- Transfer of power -

The winner of the Liberal leadership race will be announced in Ottawa on Sunday.

The party says that 400,000 people have signed up to vote and boasted of unprecedented fundraising in recent weeks.

Trudeau declined this week to give a precise date for when he would hand over power, telling reporters he would work out transition timelines with the new Liberal leader.

When ready, Trudeau and his successor will visit Governor General Mary Simon -- King Charles III's official representative in Canada -- who will task the new Liberal chief with forming a government.

The date Canadians will head to the polls for a general election remains unclear.

'Unique crisis'?

Most polls, and betting markets, still put the Conservatives as the favorites to win the next election.

But the Liberals have tried to portray Tory leader Pierre Poilievre as a Trump-like figure, citing his right-wing populist style and record of bashing favorite Trump targets with inflammatory rhetoric, including government and the media.

Experts say the Liberals may be wise to call snap elections with the Trump threat front of mind, including a trade war that Trudeau says the president launched to collapse the Canadian economy to make annexation "easier."

Carney, 59, is attractive because of his "economic experience and his seriousness," said Stephanie Chouinard, a political scientist at Canada's Royal Military College.

"He knows the global financial system and he knows the strengths and weaknesses of the Canadian economy," she added.

Surveys indicate the election will be unlike any in recent Canadian history, with historically dominant domestic issues like health care and housing costs surpassed by Trump.

"This is a unique crisis, and we do not know its scope or its duration. Today, a third of Canadians see the United States as an enemy country. It is historic and creates considerable upheaval in the way Canadians think," said pollster Jean-Marc Leger.