North Korea this week opened its borders to visitors for the first time since the pandemic began with a clear message: Pyongyang has friends in Beijing and Moscow, despite the U.S.-led efforts to isolate all three.
TOKYO — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, flanked by Russian defense chief Sergei Shoigu and Chinese Politburo member Li Hongzhong, watched a huge military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice agreement, according to photos released by North Korean state media Friday.
“China and Russia are special partners for North Korea at this moment,” said Wi Sunglac, former South Korean ambassador to Russia. “In effect, China and Russia are sort of enablers for North Korea to go ahead with the nuclear and missile program … That’s very much worrisome and frustrating.”North Korea invited the Russian and Chinese delegations this week as it celebrated the anniversary of the end of the Korean War, which ended with an armistice agreement signed on July 27, 1953.
At the end of World War II, the then-Soviet Union helped usher in a Communist regime in the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and supported leader Kim Il Sung’s invasion of the pro-American South in 1950. The Chinese side-by-side with the North Koreans in the war.The delegations’ visits came as Beijing and Moscow have drawn Pyongyang closer in an effort to reduce U.S. influence in the region. China has made a strategic overture to North Korea since the collapse of U.S.
Meanwhile, the United States, South Korea and Japan are increasing their security cooperation in the face of North Korean threats, and the leaders of the three countries are expected to hold their first summit next month that is not held on the sidelines of a multilateral forum.
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