Prez Putin meets North Korean FM amid deepening military cooperation

Seoul/Moscow, Jan 17: Russian President Vladimir Putin met visiting North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui in Moscow amid deepening military cooperation between the two countries, the media reported on Wednesday.
Putin met with Choe late Tuesday and was briefed on the results of her talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier in the day, Yonhap News Agency quoted the Kremlin as saying, without providing further details. Choe has been on a three-day visit to Russia at Lavrov’s invitation.
The trip came amid deepening military cooperation between the two countries, with the North providing Russia with arms for use in its war with Ukraine in exchange for Moscow providing technical assistance for Pyongyang’s weapons programs. During his talks with Choe, Lavrov expressed appreciation for Pyongyang’s support in what he called Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, while Choe said the North will thoroughly fulfill agreements reached at September’s summit between Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. On Monday, the Kremlin said it intends to further develop its partnership with North Korea in all areas, calling the North its “closest neighbour” and “partner”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said Moscow hopes for a visit by Putin to North Korea to take place in the “foreseeable future”, adding that further coordination, including its timing, will be discussed through diplomatic channels. North Korean state media has not yet reported on the meeting between Putin and Choe.
The US, S Korea and Japan conduct naval drills
The United States, South Korea and Japan conducted perhaps their biggest-ever combined naval exercises in a show of strength against nuclear-armed North Korea, South Korea’s military said Wednesday. The three allies’ senior diplomats were to meet in Seoul to discuss the worsening standoff with Pyongyang. The training in waters off South Korea’s Jeju island, which involved an American aircraft carrier, was aimed at sharpening the countries’ combined deterrence and response capabilities against North Korean nuclear, missile and underwater threats, and also training for preventing illicit maritime transports of weapons of mass destruction, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
He didn’t specify whether the training reflected concerns about North Korea’s alleged arms transfers to Russia to help that country’s war in Ukraine.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been on a provocative run of weapons testing and threats that raised regional tensions to their highest point in years. On Monday at Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp parliament, Kim declared that North Korea would abandon its long-standing commitment to a peaceful unification with South Korea and ordered a rewriting of North’s constitution to eliminate the idea of a shared statehood between the war-divided countries. (Agencies)