North Korea tests-fires new weapons and welcomes Russian security chief

North Korea tests-fires new weapons and welcomes Russian security chief

As Kim Jong Un and Russia’s security chief held talks in Pyongyang, North Korea announced on Friday ( Mar 21 ) that it had tested-fired a new weapons system that would increase its combat readiness.

Since Moscow’s 2022 conquest of Ukraine, where conventional friends Russia and North Korea have gotten closer, Seoul accusing Kim of sending thousands of troops and pot lots of weapons to Moscow to help it defeat Kyiv.

Moscow and Pyongyang have not confirmed the army deployment, but the two nations signed a comprehensive military agreement last season, including a shared military provision, when Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare trip to the nuclear-armed North.

The most recent high-level exchanges between North Korea and Russia have occurred, according to Russian news agency TASS, which revealed that Moscow’s major security national Sergei Shoigu was in North Korea on Friday.

In a meeting with the North Korean leader, Shoigu received “greetings and best desires” from Putin to Kim.

A strategic relationship agreement with common defense components, signed and ratified last year, was also praised for “fully serving the interests of both countries.”

Kim oversaw the country’s most recent anti-aircraft missile test, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA ) on Friday, without specifying when it took place.

Kim claimed it demonstrated that North Korea’s army may be “equipped with another key defence system with admirable combat performance,” according to KCNA.

The news came a moment after South Korea completed a significant annual joint military exercise known as Freedom Shield, which Pyongyang individually decried on Friday as” a practice of battle of hostility.”

Any military exercises between the US and the South have much angered the North, which attacked its neighbor in 1950 and started the Korean War.

Seoul claimed last week that the North had launched “multiple unexplained nuclear missiles” after the joint exercises, which involved US soldiers stationed in South Korea.

In the Yellow Sea, Pyongyang tested corporate cruise missiles in later February, which it claimed demonstrated” attack features.”

A creative drill was a part of the most recent Freedom Shield workout that was focused on preventing nuclear, chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons of mass destruction.

Relations between Pyongyang and Seoul have been at one of their most negative items in years, with the North firing a number of nuclear weapons last year in violation of UN punishment.