North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits Chinese military cemetery ahead of Victory Day
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North Korean leader Kim Jong's visit to the cemetery comes ahead of the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Korean War truce.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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SEOUL – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited a cemetery for Chinese soldiers who fought in the Korean War, state media KCNA reported on Wednesday.
His visit comes ahead of the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Korean War truce on Thursday, which is celebrated as Victory Day in North Korea, often with a grandiose military parade.
The move comes as the nuclear-armed, reclusive state has been gearing up for the upcoming ceremony,
South Korean and American intelligence authorities were “closely monitoring” the situation, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff told a briefing on Tuesday, when asked about the ceremony.
Mr Kim, who was accompanied by his powerful sister Kim Yo Jong, also visited the Fatherland Liberation War Martyrs Cemetery on Monday, KCNA reported, as he touted the soldiers as “inflicting defeat” on US imperialism.
The Great Fatherland Liberation War is a name used by Pyongyang to refer to the Korean War.
The Russian delegation, led by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, arrived on Tuesday to join the Chinese delegation, which is led by Chinese Communist Party Politburo member Li Hongzhong.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had been invited by its North Korean counterpart.
“This visit will help strengthen Russian-North Korean military ties and will be an important stage in the development of cooperation between the two countries,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry posted a short video on its Telegram messaging app showing Mr Shoigu being greeted by a North Korean military official on a red carpet on the tarmac of an airport.
A red banner with a sign saying, “Welcome, Comrade Defence Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Shoigu!” in Korean and Russian stood behind a line of saluting soldiers.
North Korea closed its border in early 2020 to all trade and diplomatic exchanges, even with its main economic and political partners China and Russia. The state media report did not say whether the visits marked any change in policy.
Mr Kim Jong Un’s visit to the cemetery comes as the nuclear-armed, reclusive state is gearing up for the upcoming Victory Day ceremony.
PHOTO: REUTERS
China asserted on Monday that it “strictly” implements United Nations sanctions on North Korea, reacting to a letter from the Group of Seven, the European Union and others that urged Beijing to stop Pyongyang from evading the measures by using Chinese waters.
China’s exports to North Korea in June were eight times higher than a year before, when the secretive state was reporting tens of thousands of Covid-19 cases a day and had shut its border.
The United States has accused North Korea of providing military aid to Russia for the war in Ukraine,
Russia and North Korea, who both have frosty relations with the US, have long enjoyed friendly ties with each other, and Moscow has tried to help broker a deal on Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.
US State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said on Tuesday that both Russia and China “can use their influence over the DPRK (North Korea) to encourage them to refrain from threatening, unlawful behaviour”.
“They also have a potential role to play in encouraging the DPRK to return to the negotiating table,” Mr Patel said. REUTERS
