Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu proposed to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un holding joint naval drills that included China when he made a rare trip to Pyongyang in July, Yonhap News reported, citing South Korea’s spy agency.
(Bloomberg) — Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu proposed to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un holding joint naval drills that included China when he made a rare trip to Pyongyang in July, Yonhap News reported, citing South Korea’s spy agency.
National Intelligence Service chief Kim Kyou-hyun was quoted by lawmakers as saying in a closed-door session of parliament’s intelligence committee Monday that Shoigu made the offer directly to Kim when they met, Yonhap reported.
Such drills would mark a turning point for reclusive North Korea and its relations with long time partners Russia and China. There is no indication on whether Kim accepted the offer, but his country’s military has kept to itself for large-scale drills since the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War.
Read: Five Takeaways From the US, Japan and South Korea Summit
While three-way drills would add to the concerns of the US and its two main partners in the region — South Korea and Japan — the actual implications of such exercises would be limited since North Korea maintains a small coastal navy that pales in comparison with the fleets of Russia and China, according to Go Myong-hyun, a senior fellow of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul.
The leaders of the US, South Korea and Japan pledged at a summit in August to work together to counter the nuclear threat posed by Pyongyang and share real-time data on its missile launches. They also stepped up military training among the three, including drills last month to practice tracking and shooting down missiles.
The US has accused North Korea for months of providing weapons to help in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Last week, the White House said it had new information that Russia and North Korea are negotiating arms deals under which the isolated regime would provide President Vladimir Putin’s army with munitions and other support for its invasion of its neighbor.
The most obvious items that Pyongyang has and Moscow needs are artillery shells and rockets that Moscow can use in Soviet-era weaponry pushed into service in Ukraine. The Kremlin’s war machine has been burning through its stocks and is scrambling for supplies with the war now well into its second year.
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