North Korea's Jan 14 solid-fuel missile test hogged the news worldwide, but another event of much, if not greater, significance went under the radar.
That same day, Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui and her delegation departed for a three-day visit to Russia at the invitation of her counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
All eyes are watching the outcome of this visit, which ends on Jan 17, given the deepening cooperation between the two countries, and reports of Russia using North Korean-made ballistic missiles and other weapons in its attack on Ukraine.
"A more powerful North Korea that will be even more emboldened" may come out of the North Korea-Russia cooperation, warned retired United States National Intelligence Council officer Sydney Seiler, who is now senior adviser and Korea chair at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Speaking at an online CSIS forum on Jan 11, Mr Seiler warned that the possibility of Russia helping North Korea to improve its production facilities including technological enhancements for weapons and equipment ranging from missiles to armoured vehicles would be "the most troubling development".
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ramped up his bellicosity in recent weeks, from the firing of hundreds of artillery shells near the inter-Korean maritime border from Jan 5 to 7, to describing South Korea as the "principal enemy", and making references to "war" and "annihilating" the South last week.
At a key parliamentary meeting on Jan 15, Mr Kim also called for defining South Korea as the "No.1 hostile country" in the Constitution and to codify the commitment to "completely occupy" the South in the event of war.
While North Korea was said to have started its covert supply of artillery shells to Russia as early as November 2022, Moscow reportedly started using the ballistic missiles on Dec 30, 2023, and Jan 2, 2024.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der January 17, 2024-Ausgabe von The Straits Times.
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