In a May 25 interview with Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti (RIA), Aleksandr Ivanovich Matsegora, the Russian ambassador to Pyongyang, revealed that his country resumed its goods exports to North Korea in November last year, “not just on a one-time, but on a regular basis.” According to him, in the first quarter of 2023, a total of 13,223 tons of goods were transported from Russia to the DPRK through the Khasan/Tumangan border, including 4,946 tons of wheat flour and 4,309 tons of corn.
Matsegora also claimed that Russia directly supplies the DPRK with vegetable oil, confectionery and petroleum products as well as horses, while construction materials come in transit via China. At present, he said he was hopeful that “the transportation of Russian goods – mainly coal – to be transshipped at Rajin port will begin soon,” adding that the two countries were “currently actively discussing the issue.”
However, bilateral trade with North Korea was still very limited due to the “dire consequences” of the sanctions imposed on the regime by the United Nations (UN) Security Council, Matsegora told RIA. “They destroyed the settlement system, made it very difficult to deliver goods by sea and severely restricted the range of goods allowed for export to and import from North Korea.” Still, the Russian government is looking for ways to increase trade despite the UN-imposed embargoes, he said. “The most important step is to establish a settlement system in rubles, and we are working on that.”
In addition, the two countries have reportedly agreed on passenger air service between Pyongyang and Vladivostok, which the Russian ambassador announced will resume “immediately after the opening of the borders” and the resulting “development of tourism.”
North Korea, on the other hand, also appears eager to accelerate its trade with the Russian Federation. On May 28, Foreign Trade, a North Korean propaganda magazine, published an article praising the Rason Special Economic Zone on the Tumen River, which is a base of North Korean-Russian trade. It was referred to as a “Golden Triangle” and stated that “35 contractual and joint venture companies as well as foreign-owned and foreign-invested enterprises are conducting economic and trade activities in the region.” Economic cooperation and development in the fields of transportation, maritime and garment processing were reportedly “flourishing” – also thanks to the “Rajin Port Pier No. 3,” a structure jointly built by North Korea and Russia in 2014.
Russian ambassador: The North needs to defend itself from the West
Matsegora also elaborated on the state of North Korea’s military development, claiming that the regime has developed “an almost complete range of ballistic and cruise missiles” over the past decade, including nuclear and thermonuclear warheads, underwater-launched ballistic and cruise missiles, and unmanned underwater vehicles.
According to the diplomat, however, the weapons are intended by the North Korean regime only for self-defense purposes in the face of hostile US policy. “The situation here has escalated recently due to the aggressive policy of Washington, which is moving strategic offensive weapons to the peninsula’s south and conducting continuous exercises together with South Korean troops,” he said, referring to the “Washington Declaration” – a joint nuclear deterrence deal which US President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol adopted on April 26.
Those “military games” by the West were intended to “destroy the DPRK’s leadership, conquer its territory, and eliminate its political system,” thereby forcing Kim Jong Un’s regime “to take measures to defend itself and be fully prepared to resist aggression from a strong and dangerous enemy,” Matsegora told RIA. “Of course, the North Koreans are not going to attack the United States, Japan or South Korea, invade those countries or change their political order. They just want to be left alone. But they’re also not going to let anyone hurt them.” Therefore, “in such a difficult – in fact pre-war – situation, the accumulated arsenals of weapons may be needed.”
Still, Russia harbors hopes that a hot war will not occur in the near future, according to the diplomat. “In the past decades, we have experienced several major and a dozen ‘moderate’ crises here. Each of them, without exception, ended in détente. I think that will be the case this time as well.” The Russian Embassy in Pyongyang is thus set on continuing its work – “no matter how difficult and dangerous” it is. “For the most extreme circumstances, we have a shelter,” Matsegora said. “I hope we won’t need it.”
Russia and North Korea appear to be moving ever closer together
In today’s world, the Russian ambassador counted North Korea among his country’s closest allies. “Unlike many others,” he explained, the North Korean regime does not hesitate to criticize the United States for its “attempts to maintain a unipolar world order in which it itself plays the leading role while suppressing adversaries – especially Russia.” Therefore, the solidarity with Russia shown by its “Korean friends on international platforms is very valuable,” Matsegora told RIA. “We are very grateful to them for that.”
Moscow and Pyongyang have recently started a process of re-establishing an alliance that existed during the Cold War but has repeatedly faltered since the demise of the Soviet Union. The two regimes, outlawed by the West, are both apparently banking on the benefits that a good “partnership” could offer them, and are currently on correspondingly friendly terms.
The Kremlin’s economic and diplomatic alienation of the international community since its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, provides Pyongyang with the opportunity to win over Russia as a favorable trading partner and powerful supporter in the UN Security Council, with whose help they can avoid further sanctions. Russia, in turn, gets in North Korea an open supporter of its war and a grateful buyer of its goods. The relationship between the two countries is also based on a common enemy – the United States – and the shared goal of permanently undermining US influence in the Asian periphery.
Edited by Robert Lauler.
