Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, travels to North Korea amid diplomatic activity

According to the Russian state news agency Tass, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in North Korea on Wednesday. This is the most recent diplomatic exchange between the two nations after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited North Korea in July and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited Russia in September.

Lavrov went to Beijing earlier this week with President Vladimir Putin, highlighting the Chinese government’s assistance to Moscow throughout the conflict in Ukraine.

Lavrov’s most recent trip to North Korea was in 2018. According to the Russian official news service RIA Novosti, he will meet with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui during his two-day visit.

The time of Putin’s trip to North Korea, which he also accepted, has not yet been disclosed.

Kim visited Putin on his visit to Russia at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, and he also looked at fighter planes at an aircraft plant in the country’s far east.

The White House said on Friday that North Korea has sent more than a thousand containers worth of weapons and military hardware to Russia for use in its continuing conflict in Ukraine.

During Kim’s visit to Russia, rumors about a potential North Korean plot to replenish Russian munitions stocks depleted by its lengthy conflict with Ukraine erupted.

According to John Kirby, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, the US thinks Kim is requesting advanced Russian weapons technology in exchange for the ammunition to advance North Korea’s military and nuclear programs.

According to North Korean state media, Kim demanded last month an exponential rise in nuclear weapon manufacturing and a bigger role for his country in a group of countries fighting the United States in a “new Cold War.”

The two nations claimed to have discussed strengthening their military relations during Kim’s six-day visit to Russia, which was his longest trip abroad as a leader, but they did not divulge any concrete actions.

Foreign analysts assume that the two nations, who are both embroiled in conflicts with the West, were attempting to negotiate military transfers in defiance of decisions made by the UN Security Council.

Kim’s journey to Russia was also his first overseas excursion since the epidemic, which was followed by more than three years of strict border restrictions by North Korea.

Since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, ties between Russia and North Korea have improved after decades of alternating warmth and cold.

Russia and North Korea have had ties ever since the Soviet Union appointed Kim Il Sung, Kim’s late grandfather, as the nation’s first leader in 1948. Kim was a young, ambitious nationalist.

Before the Soviet Union’s dissolution in the early 1990s, Soviet assistance supplies were essential in maintaining North Korea’s economy.