Sam Amico
North Korea has opened back up just long enough to welcome high-level delegations from Russia and China to visit this week, signaling an end to the travel ban in and out of the country that’s existed since 2020.
Videos by Rare
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chinese Politburo member Li Hongzhong both paid a visit to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as the autocratic state marks 70 years since a truce ended the Korean War.
It was the first time high-level foreign officials visited North Korea since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The Russian envoy was quoted by North Korean state media as saying the sides met in a “cordial atmosphere overflowing with militant friendship.”
Per CBS News: “Russian officials haven’t typically received invites to what North Korea calls its ‘Victory Day’ ceremonies. This year’s invitation to Shoigu and his delegation came as the United Nations noted that Moscow was once again exporting oil to North Korea, and amid claims that Pyongyang has been selling the Russians weapons for the war in Ukraine.”
Photos shared by state media show Kim giving Shoigu a tour of the North’s weapons and missiles at an arms exhibition. Also highlighted were Pyongyang’s new drones, with “one possibly modeled after the U.S. Global Hawk reconnaissance drone,” CBS wrote.
Of course, it’s not all rainbows and unicorns. As CBS relayed, there remains plenty of tension between the North Korea and the United States.
“This week, the U.S. sent a second nuclear-armed submarine to South Korea, the USS Annapolis in a move likely to draw further condemnation from North Korea and possibly more missile tests,” the outlet wrote. “Earlier this month, North Korea’s official, state-run news agency slammed the planned deployment of U.S. strategic nuclear assets to South Korea as ‘the most undisguised nuclear blackmail’ and warned that such deployments posed a threat to global security.”
