SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday hailed his country’s ties with Russia, saying the two nations were “invincible comrades-in-arms,” amid reports President Vladimir Putin will visit Pyongyang imminently.
Kim made a rare overseas trip to meet Putin in Russia’s far east last year, with Seoul and Washington subsequently claiming Pyongyang was shipping weapons to Moscow for use in Ukraine, violating UN sanctions, in return for technical help with its satellite program.
Putin was expected to pay a return visit to North Korea in the coming days, after the Kremlin told Russian media in May that the trip was “being prepared.”
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported the visit could take place “as early as next week,” as part of a tour that would also include a stop in Vietnam.
Ties between North Korea and Russia have “developed into an unbreakable relationship of comrades-in-arms,” leader Kim wrote in a message to Putin carried in the official Korean Central News Agency Wednesday.
Their “meaningful” ties will “further consolidate the eternal milestone” in the new era, Kim added, according to KCNA.
Yonhap said that satellite images showed possible signs of a “large structure” being installed in Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Square.
Such activity has previously been observed when North Korea was preparing for large-scale events in the capital, such as military parades or visits by high-ranking foreign figures, according to Yonhap.
When he visited Putin last year, Kim said the North’s ties with Moscow were his country’s “number one priority.”
Analysts have also warned that ramped-up testing and production of artillery and cruise missiles by the nuclear-armed North could be in preparation for shipments to Russia for use in Ukraine.
North Korea is barred by UN sanctions from any tests using ballistic technology, but Moscow used its UN Security Council veto in March to effectively end UN monitoring of violations, for which Pyongyang has specifically thanked Russia.
North Korea has denied the allegations that it is shipping weapons to Russia, calling the claim “absurd.”
However, a pentagon report last month said Russia is using North Korean ballistic missiles in Ukraine, citing debris analysis.
Experts said that during Putin’s visit to Pyongyang, North Korea would likely push to export more war materials to be used in the Ukraine war, in exchange for importing food and energy from Russia.
There is a “disparity in the threat perception between what’s happening in Ukraine — an actual, visible conflict — and what’s happening in North Korea — the possibility of a crisis, which may seem distant when compared to the realities of the Russia-Ukraine war,” Soo Kim, a former CIA analyst, said.
“This plays to both Putin and Kim’s advantage, obviously, as Putin, who’s currently embroiled in the war and is pressed to receive help in his war efforts, and Kim is keen to build out his weapons program further,” she added.
North Korea’s Kim hails Russia ties ahead of likely Putin visit
https://arab.news/433ya
North Korea’s Kim hails Russia ties ahead of likely Putin visit
- Kim Jong Un made a rare overseas trip to meet Vladimir Putin in Russia’s far east last year
- Russian leader expected to pay a return visit to North Korea in the coming days
Carney says Canada has no plans to pursue free trade agreement with China as Trump threatens tariffs
Carney says Canada has no plans to pursue free trade agreement with China as Trump threatens tariffs
TORONTO: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday his country has no intention of pursuing a free trade deal with China. He was responding to US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose a 100 percent tariff on goods imported from Canada if America’s northern neighbor went ahead with a trade deal with Beijing.
Carney said his recent agreement with China merely cuts tariffs on a few sectors that were recently hit with tariffs.
Trump claims otherwise, posting that “China is successfully and completely taking over the once Great Country of Canada. So sad to see it happen. I only hope they leave Ice Hockey alone! President DJT”
The prime minister said under the free trade agreement with the US and Mexico there are commitments not to pursue free trade agreements with nonmarket economies without prior notification.
“We have no intention of doing that with China or any other nonmarket economy,” Carney said. “What we have done with China is to rectify some issues that developed in the last couple of years.”
In 2024, Canada mirrored the United States by putting a 100 percent tariff on electric vehicles from Beijing and a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum. China had responded by imposing 100 percent import taxes on Canadian canola oil and meal and 25 percent on pork and seafood.
Breaking with the United States this month during a visit to China, Carney cut its 100 percent tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on those Canadian products.
Carney has said there would be an initial annual cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports coming into Canada at a tariff rate of 6.1 percent, growing to about 70,000 over five years. He noted there was no cap before 2024. He also has said the initial cap on Chinese EV imports was about 3 percent of the 1.8 million vehicles sold in Canada annually and that, in exchange, China is expected to begin investing in the Canadian auto industry within three years.
Trump posted a video Sunday in which the chief executive of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association warns there will be no Canadian auto industry without US access, while noting the Canadian market alone is too small to justify large scale manufacturing from China.
“A MUST WATCH. Canada is systematically destroying itself. The China deal is a disaster for them. Will go down as one of the worst deals, of any kind, in history. All their businesses are moving to the USA. I want to see Canada SURVIVE AND THRIVE! President DJT,” Trump posted on social media.
Trump’s post on Saturday said that if Carney “thinks he is going to make Canada a ‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken.”
“We can’t let Canada become an opening that the Chinese pour their cheap goods into the U.S,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“We have a , but based off — based on that, which is going to be renegotiated this summer, and I’m not sure what Prime Minister Carney is doing here, other than trying to virtue-signal to his globalist friends at Davos.”
Trump’s threat came amid an escalating war of words with Carney as the Republican president’s push to acquire Greenland strained the NATO alliance.
Carney has emerged as a leader of a movement for countries to find ways to link up and counter the US under Trump. Speaking in Davos before Trump, Carney said, “Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu” and he warned about coercion by great powers — without mentioning Trump’s name. The prime minister received widespread praise and attention for his remarks, upstaging Trump at the World Economic Forum.
Trump’s push to acquire Greenland has come after he has repeatedly needled Canada over its sovereignty and suggested it also be absorbed into the United States as a 51st state. He posted an altered image on social media this week showing a map of the United States that included Canada, Venezuela, Greenland and Cuba as part of its territory.
