Russian Defense Minister in North Korea for military talks

Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov talked with his counterpart in North Korea on Friday, stoking concerns over deepening military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow while Russian jets flying nearby South Korea added to the mounting tensions.

“During the official visit of the Russian Defense Minister, meetings with the military and military-political leadership of the DPRK are planned,” the Russian Defense ministry said in a statement on its Telegram channel on Friday. DPRK stands for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Belousov said the talks would contribute to a strengthening of the countries’ defense partnership, according to Interfax. North Korean Defense Minister No Kwang Chol said the meeting could serve as a key moment for enhancing security and defense for both countries, the Interfax report added.

Belousov’s visit follows Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warning that his forces may strike “decision-making centers” in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv with new ballistic missiles as retaliation for attacks on Russia using Western missiles.

Earlier in the week Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov met with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in a trip widely believed to have entered on a request for weapons support to repel a Russian invasion now backed by North Korea.

South Korea has raised the prospect of sending weapons to Ukraine in response to North Korea’s dispatch of thousands of troops to Russia to help the Kremlin’s war efforts. Russia has said any provision of weapons will “fully destroy relations” between Seoul and Moscow.

Those relations were tested Friday with South Korea scrambling fighter jets after six warplanes from Russia and five from China entered an air identification zone maintained by Seoul. The Russian and Chinese planes did not enter South Korea’s territorial air space, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, but their presence and the scrambling of jets by Seoul in response underscores the risk that both sides of the divided Korean peninsula may get dragged into the conflict.

The air zone is an area where aircraft are supposed to identify themselves as they draw near it. The planes flew above waters off South Korea’s eastern and southern coasts, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

Seoul has long resisted calls from Western partners to tap into its vast military stockpiles with direct transfers of weapons or ammunition to Ukraine, choosing instead to help Kyiv with other aid. But North Korea’s deployment to Russia has shifted that stance, with Yoon saying Pyongyang’s direct involvement in the conflict poses a threat to his country’s security.

The growing ties between Pyongyang and Moscow have emboldened North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to ramp up hostility toward South Korea, while raising fears about North Korea’s ability to strengthen its military and sustain its regime with Russian backing.

The U.S. and South Korea have repeatedly accused Kim of sending munitions and ballistic missiles to aid Putin’s war in Ukraine, with South Korea estimating that as many as 8 million rounds have been sent.

A previous Pyongyang visit by Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu in September was followed by North Korea’s troops deployment to Russia.