By Ali Karbalaei 

DPRK, Russia defiant in face of US aggression 

September 18, 2023 - 23:25
Kim ends week-long trip to Russia 

TEHRAN - Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un departed Russia on Sunday after spending one week in the country. 

A video, published by Russian media, shows Kim walking on a red carpet to a train that took him back to the DPRK amid the sounds of a military band. 

During his week-long visit, Kim met Russian President Vladimir Putin. They discussed deepening cooperation, the war in Ukraine, and international developments. 

Putin took Kim on a tour of Russia's most advanced space rocket launch site.

Kim is reported to have asked questions about Russian rockets as Putin showed him around the Vostochny Cosmodrome.

After the tour, both leaders held talks for several hours with their cabinet ministers, where they discussed international affairs and areas of cooperation. 

Kim spoke about a victory for "great Russia" in its "sacred fight" against the United States and its Western allies in the Ukraine war.

"The Russian army and people will certainly win a great victory in the sacred struggle for the punishment of a great evil that claims hegemony and feeds an expansionist illusion," Kim said. 

During Kim's visit to Russia, the U.S. and its allies were obsessed with speaking about possible arms deliveries from the DPRK to Russia amid Moscow's war against the U.S.-led military alliance in Ukraine. 

The White House has previously accused the DPRK of sending weapons to Russia but fell short of providing any evidence to back up the accusation. 

Moscow and Pyongyang have both denied the allegations. 

The U.S. has warned it would impose more sanctions over any weapons transfers by either country to the other. 

"We have taken a number of actions already to sanction entities that brokered arms sales between North Korea and Russia, and we won't hesitate to impose additional sanctions if appropriate," U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a briefing.

The U.S. has deployed a new strategy to feed its war machine, and instead of resorting to dialogue to help global security issues, Washington is instead using proxies to satisfy its military-industrial complex. 

At the same time, this strategy, following the Vietnam War, paves the ground to avoid putting American boots on the ground. 

The strategy was temporarily reversed with the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, but the sight of American soldiers returning in body bags has seen Washington fall back on its policy of using proxies to wage wars far beyond its borders, such as Yemen or Ukraine. 

And it all comes at the expense of the U.S. taxpayers' money, with the American public misguided by the U.S. mainstream media who report on the Ukraine war as a humanitarian mission. 

This is the same mission that is now costing a single U.S. household hundred of dollars. 

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said Ukraine has "no chance" of winning and can be ended tomorrow by the United States. 

In a recent interview, Orban debunked the U.S. narrative of a Ukrainian victory, saying, "It’s a lie. It’s not just a misunderstanding. It’s a lie. It’s impossible. Everybody who’s in politics can understand the logic, the figures, and the data. No way... the poor Ukrainians die every day."

"If the United States would like to have a peace, next morning there is peace because it’s obvious that the Ukrainians, the poor Ukrainians on their own, they are not competitive in this war. So if there is no money and there is no equipment from the West and especially from the United States, the war is over," he pointed out. 

Are other countries allowed to expand their bilateral relations in a U.S.-led unipolar world that brings global instability and unilateral sanctions? 

Critics argue that it's the only way forward for international peace and stability. 

Kim is reported to have visited aviation factories in the Russian city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur and inspected Russia's Pacific fleet in Vladivostok.

On Saturday, he met Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. They "exchanged their constructive opinions on the practical issues arising in further strengthening the strategic and tactical coordination, cooperation and mutual exchange between the armed forces of the two countries and in the fields of their national defence and security," KCNA said on Sunday.

Shoigu told Russian media that Moscow is discussing joint military exercises with the DPRK. 

"Why not? These are our neighbors. There's an old Russian saying: you don't choose your neighbours, and it's better to live with your neighbors in peace and harmony," Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

The Kremlin said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Pyongyang next month for more talks. 

The KCNA reported that Putin has also accepted an invitation from Kim to visit Pyongyang in the future. 

Russia has joined China in opposing new sanctions on the DPRK, blocking a U.S.-led push and publicly splitting the UN Security Council on Pyongyang for the first time since it started punitive measures against the DPRK in 2006.

The trip by the DPRK leader signifies "a fresh heyday of friendship and solidarity and cooperation is being opened up in the history of the development of the relations between the DPRK and Russia," the KCNA said. 

Foreign Minister Lavrov said Moscow wanted to develop "equal and fair cooperation" with the DPRK despite sanctions imposed on Pyongyang by the UN Security Council.

"We have not declared sanctions against the DPRK. The Security Council did that. So appeal to the Security Council, and we will develop equal and fair cooperation with the DPRK," Lavrov said in a state TV interview on Sunday. 

The Kremlin said it abides by UN sanctions, but that Russia has a right to develop neighborly ties. 

Russia also noted the hypocritical stance of the U.S. in criticizing Putin's summit with Kim, saying Washington had sown chaos and sent weapons to allies across the world.

"The United States has no right to lecture us on how to live," Russia's ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, said in a statement.

The U.S., Antonov said, had built up a coalition in Asia, expanded military drills near the Korean peninsula, and was supplying billions of dollars of weapons to Ukraine.

"It is time for Washington to throw its economic sanctions into the rubbish dump," Antonov said. "Maintaining the unipolar dominance so beloved by American officials is no longer possible."

Analysts say both the DPRK and Russia are facing the U.S. military aggression. 

Washington has sent warships armed with nuclear weapons to the Korean Peninsula and regularly conducts joint military exercises with South Korea in what the DPRK views as a rehearsal for the invasion of its territory. 

On the other hand, since February 2022, experts say the U.S.-led NATO military alliance has been waging a war against Russia using Ukraine as its proxy this time.
 

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