Also help with satellite construction
Putin offers Kim to send a North Korean into space
September 14, 2023, 10:06 a.m
Kim Jong Un visits Vladimir Putin in Russia to discuss their military cooperation. With unbeatable offers from both sides, those in power are striving for a long-term partnership. This could have serious consequences for the East Asian region and the war in Ukraine.
Putin and Kim met on Wednesday at the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Russian Far East. There, Russia offered Pyongyang to send a North Korean citizen into space for the first time.
“We talked about the possibility of training a North Korean cosmonaut and sending him into space if the North Korean side wishes,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Russian news agencies Tass and Ria Novosti. If such a mission comes about, it would be the first person from North Korea to fly into space.
“Dangerous military actions by the USA and its vassals”
Putin also raised the possibility that Russia could help North Korea build satellites after Pyongyang twice failed to put a spy satellite into orbit. “The leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea shows great interest in missile technology and is trying to expand his presence in space,” Putin said.
Kim had previously made the development of a military spy satellite a priority to “counter the dangerous military actions of the United States and its vassals,” North Korea’s official KCNA news agency reported in May.
The meeting signals a “seismic shift in Northeast Asian geopolitics,” said Kim Jong-dae, a researcher at the Yonsei Institute for North Korean Studies in Seoul. A stronger alliance between North Korea, Russia and China could become a “destabilizing force in the region.”
Use of North Korean weapons in the Russian war of aggression?
According to estimates from Washington, the talks held there could lead to North Korea supplying weapons to Russia. According to Kim Jong-dae, weapons from Pyongyang could influence the war in Ukraine: “I think Russia has already tested the North Korean projectiles on the battlefield and is now ready to expand their use,” said the expert. Neither the USA nor South Korea are clear about the consequences of such an arms deal between Russia and the North.
Meanwhile, Japan warned that arms deals between the two countries would violate a UN resolution banning arms sales to North Korea. “Japan has asked third parties not to support the Russian armed forces. We are watching the talks with concern,” Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa told reporters on Thursday.