Tag: Russia

When you think about it, it is kind of embarrassing for Moscow to have relied on North Korea to recapture Russian territory. It would be like the U.S. relying on Canada to recapture part of Arizona if Mexico ever attacked the U.S.:

North Korea and Russia are dramatically expanding high-level exchanges, with three Russian ministers visiting the North at the same time, as they mark the first anniversary of the recapture of the Kursk region next week amid Moscow’s war with Ukraine, according to Pyongyang’s state media Thursday.

Sectoral working-level meetings to boost North Korea-Russia cooperation and exchanges were held at a hotel in the Wonsan-Kalma eastern seaside resort region the previous day, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

The meetings brought together Russian Natural Resources Minister Alexander Kozlov, who serves as the Russian chair of the bilateral committee on trade and economic cooperation; North Korea’s External Economic Relations Minister Yun Jong-ho; Russia’s Health Minister Mikhail Murashko; North Korea’s Public Health Minister Kim Tu-won and others.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Really what is Russia going to do if South Korea sells arms to Ukraine? Do more threatening bomber flights around the peninsula like they are already doing?:

Russia’s deputy foreign minister has said Moscow will have to resort to “retaliatory measures” in the event South Korea provides lethal weapons to Ukraine, a Russian media report showed Saturday.

Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko made the remarks in an interview with Russia’s Tass news agency, as he mentioned an initiative to supply Ukraine with U.S. weapons, known as the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL).

“We have consistently conveyed to the South Korean side through various channels Russia’s principled position on the inadmissibility of the participation of South Korea in the direct and indirect supplies of lethal weapons to the Kiev regime, including as part of the PURL initiative,” Rudenko was quoted as saying.

“Otherwise, the bilateral relations between Russia and South Korea may be seriously affected, and we will be forced to resort to retaliatory measures. I hope that we won’t be forced to resort to such steps,” he said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Besides making money from sending their Soldiers to fight for Russia, selling them weapons has been quite lucrative for the regime as well:

North Korea is believed to have shipped some 33,000 containers of military supplies, including weapons and ammunition, to Russia as part of its support for Moscow in the war with Ukraine, a military intelligence unit said Sunday.

The shipped volume, in terms of ammunition, could amount to over 15 million 152-mm artillery shells, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) under the defense ministry said in a report submitted to Rep. Kang Dae-sik of the main opposition People Power Party.

The assessment marks an increase from the DIA’s announcement in July last year that about 28,000 containers of military supplies had been shipped from North Korea to Russia.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I am actually surprised the Russian Embassy actually responded to such criticism in this way, I would have guessed they would have kept the banner up and conducted their event:

The Russian Embassy in Seoul on Tuesday removed a controversial banner on its outer wall of the embassy complex amid speculation the message might allude to Russia’s war with Ukraine, while canceling an external event commemorating its military. 

The removal came after the embassy recently caused controversy by hanging a banner on the exterior wall of its building that read “victory will be ours” in Russian. The phrase, though used during World War II, drew criticism for being reminiscent of the war with Ukraine.

The embassy had also planned to hold an event commemorating Defender of the Fatherland Day near its building in central Seoul on the day, but is said to have canceled the plan at the last minute and converted it into an internal event.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Why do the Russians keep coming if the ROK isn’t giving them refugee status? It makes me think they are using the refugee process to buy time and once it is denied fly to another country to start the process all over again to buy more time:

This file image, provided by Yonhap News TV, shows the justice ministry’s headquarters in Gwacheon, just south of Seoul. (Yonhap)

Russians made up the largest share of asylum seekers in South Korea for the third consecutive year in 2025 amid the war in Ukraine, justice ministry data showed Wednesday.

According to the annual data of asylum seekers, 2,026 Russians applied for refugee status in the country last year, accounting for 13.8 percent of the total 14,626 applicants, followed by 1,462 Indians and 1,216 Kazakhs 

The 2025 tally marked a sharp drop from 4,546 Russian applicants the previous year, but Russians have held the largest share of asylum seekers by nationality since 2023.

In 2023, Russia recorded 5,750 applicants — a fivefold increase from a year earlier — in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

A ministry official said the conflict is believed to have had an influence on the number of Russian applications, noting the country’s conscription efforts due to the war.

But no Russians were granted refugee status last year, the official said. South Korea granted the status to 135 people, including 75 Burmese in 2025 alone.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The Russians and Chinese are once again trying to flex their military might against their neighbors:

Nine Chinese and Russian military aircraft briefly entered and left South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) above waters east and south of the country, South Korea’s military said Tuesday.

Two Chinese military planes and seven Russian aircraft successively entered the KADIZ at around 10 a.m. prompting the military to dispatch Air Force fighter jets in preparation for a possible accidental situation, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

They did not violate South Korea’s air space, the JCS said, adding it detected the aircraft before they entered the air defense zone.

The air defense zone is not territorial airspace but is delineated to call on foreign planes to identify themselves so as to prevent accidental clashes.

The aircraft, including bombers and fighter jets, intermittently entered and left the KADIZ for about an hour before completely retreating from the air defense zone, a JCS official said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

North Korean Defense Minister No Kwang-chol (3rd from R) holds talks with Russian Gen. Viktor Goremykin (4th from L), who has led a delegation of the Main Military-Political Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces, in Pyongyang on Nov. 6, 2025, in this photo released by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency the next day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

It looks like Kim Jong-un could be on the road again after being invited to Russia by Putin:

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to visit Russia again, a Russian report said, as they held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of a military parade in Beijing.

The two leaders met at the Diaoyutai state guest house after attending the military parade at Tiananmen Square in Beijing marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in 1945.

As Putin escorted Kim to his car at the end of the meeting, the North Korean leader told him, “See you soon,” to which Putin replied that he will be “waiting”, urging him to “Please come,” Russia’s Tass news agency reported.

Kim has visited Russia twice so far, in 2019 and 2023, for talks with Putin.

During the talks Kim also thanked Putin for hailing the North’s troops deployed in Russia to aid Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

Putin said he will “never forget” the role of North Korean soldiers who fought “bravely and heroically” in Russia’s front-line region of Kursk in the war against Ukraine.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but it is pretty clear Kim Jong-un is projecting strength with his Russian and Chinese allies. This is important for him if he plans to conduct any negotations with South Korea and the United States in the future. He does not want to enter negotiations appearing weak. If anything Kim’s position is probably as strong as it has ever been right now.