© Reuters. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un departs Pyongyang, North Korea, to visit Russia, September 10, 2023, in this image released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency on September 12, 2023. KCNA via REUTERS
By Hyonhee Shin
SEOUL (Reuters) – Top military commanders, arms industry officials and diplomats accompanied North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on his trip to Russia, hinting at a potentially defence-heavy agenda for meetings with President Vladimir Putin.
North Korea did not name the members of the delegation, but analysts identified several key figures who appear to be accompanying Kim in photos released by state media on Tuesday.
DEFENCE LEADERS
Ri Pyong Chol, vice chairman of the ruling Workers’ Party’s powerful Central Military Commission and marshal of the army, the country’s top military rank, was seen waving alongside Kim aboard the train. Overseeing North Korea’s defence industry including its nuclear and missile programmes, Ri travelled to Russia with Kim’s late father, Kim Jong Il, in 2011.
Among other delegates were Marshal Pak Jong Chon, new head of the party’s military political leadership; Pak Thae Song, a party secretary and chairman of a national space science and technology committee involved in a spy satellite program; and Jo Chun Ryong, director of the Munitions Industry Department, who assisted Kim during his recent visits to a munitions factory and missile plant.
Michael Madden, a North Korea leadership expert at the Washington-based Stimson Center, said the participants suggest Kim and Putin would mainly focus on defence and security cooperation, including a possible agreement for munitions purchases led by Jo.
Defence Minister Kang Sun Nam is also likely to have gone on the trip to Russia, Madden said, though his face was not clearly identified in the photos.
POWER PLAYERS
Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui also shook hands with other officials in a receiving line at the train station.
A longtime nuclear negotiator and seasoned diplomat, Choe was instrumental during Kim’s summits with former U.S. President Donald Trump, and promoted to the current position last year after a brief demotion following their failed 2019 summit in Vietnam.
Kim’s powerful sister and a senior party official, Kim Yo Jong, was seen standing beside the train, though it was unclear whether she boarded.
She has played a high-profile role in supporting her brother’s past summits.
ECONOMIC OFFICIALS
Some officials handling economic affairs appear to be accompanying Kim, raising the possibility that he and Putin might discuss economic cooperation and food aid.
They include O Su Yong, a party secretary and director of the economy department; Pak Hun, vice premier of the cabinet responsible for construction; and Han Kwang Sang, chief of the party’s light industry department.
An official at Seoul’s Unification Ministry in charge of inter-Korean affairs said Kim and Putin could explore ways to return North Korean labourers to Russia, banned under the U.N. Security Council sanctions.
