Shoigu visit to Pyongyang hints at possible third North Korean deployment to Kursk

Analysts indicate that Putin is trying to secure a favorable position in future negotiations with Western powers through a third dispatch of North Korean troops to Ukraine, while Kim is trying to obtain as much security and economic compensation as possible.

On Saturday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported the results of the visit to North Korea by Sergei Shoigu, secretary of the Russian State Security Council, the day before.

“Sergei Shoigu courteously conveyed the friendly greetings and an important personal letter from Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, president of the Russian Federation, to the DPRK leader,” it reported. The DPRK is the acronym for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The KCNA added that Kim Jong-un responded with “deep thanks” and “militant greetings.”

Kim also reportedly said it was the “steadfast option and resolute will of the DPRK government” to support Russia’s “struggle for defending its national sovereignty, territorial integrity and security interests.”

In their conversation, Kim and Shoigu discussed “defending the security interests of the two countries” and “prospective undertakings for further expanding and boosting exchanges and cooperation in security and other many-sided fields.”

Shoigu, considered one of Putin’s closest aides, visited Pyongyang six months after he visited North Korea in September of last year. Kim greeted Shoigu with an embrace, according to the KCNA.

Experts say that discussions on expanding exchanges related to the “security sector” could mean a third deployment of North Korean troops.

Putin reaffirmed Kim’s pledge to send additional troops, and Kim may have received cash and a promise of modernization and practical training for the North Korean military in return. North Korea also expects the transfer of advanced military technology in the long term.

Previously, North Korea sent an additional 11,000 troops in the first deployment in December last year, and up to 3,000 soldiers this year. During Shoigu’s visit to North Korea, discussions on the specific scale and units related to the third deployment may have taken place.

Putin may have also judged that it would be advantageous to send North Korean troops rather than Russian ones to the Kursk region, the western front line, while negotiations for the end of the war were underway.

Russia regained the initiative in the region after North Korea deployed troops there last year.

Yang Wook, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, assessed that Shoigu’s visit to North Korea “means that even amid the cease-fire discussions, North Korea, which is not an official participant in the war, will continue to provide Russia with leverage in the fighting.”

In addition, Kim and Shoigu reaffirmed the North Korean and Russian leadership’s will to “unconditionally implement” the provisions of the North Korea-Russia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

Shoigu met with local reporters on Thursday before he visited North Korea and stated that the trip’s main focus would be “implementing the agreements reached with North Korea.”

This supports speculation that the visit to North Korea was also intended to ease Kim Jong-un’s anxiety over the mass casualties suffered by the North Korean military. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s General Directorate of Information (HUR) estimated that up to 4,000 North Korean military casualties occurred on the Kursk front in mid-month.

The line about “expanding and boosting exchanges and cooperation” in “other many-sided fields” may refer to North Korea’s tourism industry.

Kim is working hard to revitalize the overseas tourism industry, including opening the Wonsan-Kalma coastal tourist zone in June.

North Korea may hope to use foreign tourism to boost the inflow of foreign currency, severely reduced by international sections and Covid-19.

BY LEE YOO-JUNG,LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]