North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gestures while speaking to Russian Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology Alexander Kozlov, not pictured, after crossing the border to Russia at Khasan on Sept. 12, 2023. (Russian Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology via Telegram)
CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles off its eastern coast Wednesday, shortly before the country’s leader met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The missiles were fired from Pyongyang’s Sunan area at 11:43 a.m. and 11:53 a.m., according to a message to reporters from South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense. It estimated that both missiles flew more than 400 miles.
The launches took place about 1 ½ hours before North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met Putin at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a spaceport 890 miles north of Pyongyang, according to Russia’s state-run news service Tass. The two met for the first time in more than four years.
South Korea’s military has increased its surveillance “in preparation for further launches,” its Joint Chiefs of Staff said in the ministry’s message. The Joint Chiefs are “closely cooperating” with the United States in analyzing the launches, according to the message.
Prior to Wednesday’s launches, North Korea had fired 19 ballistic missiles in 13 separate days of testing so far this year. The communist regime last launched two short-range ballistic missiles on Aug. 30 that flew roughly 220 miles before splashing into the Sea of Japan, or East Sea.
Kim arrived in Russia by armored train on Tuesday. The pair last met in Vladivostok, about 425 miles northeast of Pyongyang, on April 25, 2019.
Putin greeted Kim at the cosmodrome’s entrance and said he was “very glad to see” the North Korean leader, according to The Associated Press. Kim told Putin that Russia’s security interests had North Korea’s “full and unconditional support.”
Video footage aired by Russia’s state-owned RIA Novosti news agency showed Kim touring the space launch facility with Putin and asking questions about rocket boosters through an interpreter.
The U.S. has expressed concern of a possible arms trade between Russia and North Korea ahead of the summit.
Kim’s trip could signify “a growing arms-transfer relationship” between Pyongyang and Moscow, in which Russia could use North Korean munitions for its war in Ukraine, Jung Pak, the U.S. deputy special representative for North Korea, said Monday at a policy forum in Washington, D.C.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a Monday news briefing that “any transfer of arms from North Korea to Russia” will be in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and that the U.S. “will not hesitate” to impose fresh sanctions against either country if they are found to have conducted an arms trade.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup and Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada agreed on Sept. 7 to expedite sharing of missile-warning data and plan for trilateral military drills due to North Korea’s missile tests.
The three defense chiefs called for boosting their military cooperation because of North Korea, which “is highly likely to continue provoking in the future,” according to a summary of their talks from the South’s defense ministry.
