North Korean Kim Backs Russia's War in Ukraine During Lavrov Visit
Lavrov's visit marks the latest in a series of high-level exchanges as Moscow and Pyongyang deepen military and political ties amid Russia's ongoing offensive in Ukraine.
North Korea has sent thousands of troops to Russia's Kursk region to support Moscow's efforts and has supplied the Russian military with artillery shells and missiles, according to reports from both countries.
Russia's foreign ministry described Lavrov's talks with Kim as held in a 'warm, comradely atmosphere.'
Lavrov expressed 'sincere gratitude' to Pyongyang for its support in Kursk and for backing what Russia calls its 'special military operation' in Ukraine, the ministry said in a statement.
Both sides also blamed Western nations for rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the statement added.
A video shared by the Russian foreign ministry on Telegram showed Kim and Lavrov shaking hands and embracing at their meeting in Wonsan, a coastal city in eastern North Korea, where a large resort—one of Kim's key development projects—opened earlier this month.
According to North Korean state media KCNA, Kim told Lavrov that Pyongyang was 'ready to unconditionally support and encourage all the measures taken by the Russian leadership' to address what it described as the root cause of the war in Ukraine. Russia's eventual victory
He also expressed confidence in Russia's eventual victory, citing what he called President Vladimir Putin's 'outstanding leadership.'
The talks also covered the implementation of agreements made during a June 2024 summit between Kim and Putin, KCNA reported.
Lavrov conveyed Putin's wish for continued direct engagement with Kim 'in the very near future,' according to Russia's TASS news agency.
Lavrov departed Pyongyang on Sunday and traveled to Beijing to attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's Council of Foreign Ministers, TASS reported. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang, North Korea, October 19, 2023. Russian Foreign Ministry Twice-weekly flights
Russia announced plans to launch twice-weekly flights between Moscow and Pyongyang ahead of Lavrov's visit.
Lavrov praised Wonsan as 'a good tourist attraction,' expressing hope that it would become popular among Russian visitors.
On Saturday, Lavrov also met with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui. KCNA described the bilateral relationship as an 'invincible alliance,' while Russia reaffirmed its 'firm support' for North Korea's efforts to defend its national security. In return, Choe voiced 'full sympathy and support' for Russia's actions in Ukraine.
TASS earlier reported that Lavrov thanked the 'heroic' North Korean soldiers aiding Russian forces.
According to South Korean officials, roughly 600 North Korean troops have been killed and thousands more wounded while fighting for Russia. North Korea acknowledged in April that it had deployed troops to Ukraine and confirmed combat casualties.
Both countries reiterated their shared goal to counter what they described as the hegemonic ambitions of 'extra-regional players,' which they said are exacerbating tensions in Northeast Asia and the wider Asia-Pacific region.
In 2024, the two heavily sanctioned states signed a defense pact that includes a mutual security clause, during a rare visit by President Putin to Pyongyang.
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SEOUL — Two gunshots. That is how Yoo Seok-sul begins recounting the night of Friday, 26 October, 1979. A former security guard in the Korea Central Intelligence Agency, or KCIA, as the South's spy division was known, Yoo has many stories to tell. But this is perhaps the most infamous. He remembers the time — nearly 19:40 — and where he had been sitting — in the break room. He was resting after his shift guarding the entrance to the low-rise compound where President Park Chung-hee entertained his most trusted lieutenants. They called it the "safe house". In his 70s now, wiry with sharp eyes, Yoo speaks hesitantly at first — but it comes back to him quickly. After the first shots, more gunfire followed, he says. The guards were on high alert but they waited outside for orders. The president's security detail was inside, along with the KCIA's top agents. Then Yoo's boss, a KCIA officer who oversaw security for the safe house, stepped outside. "He came over and asked me to bury something in the garden." It was two guns, bullets and a pair of shoes. Flustered, Yoo followed orders, he did not know who had been shot, and he didn't ask."I never imagined that it was the president."The guns Yoo buried were used to assassinate Park Chung-hee, who had ruled South Korea for the previous 18 years, longer than any president before or since. The man who shot him was his long-time friend Kim Jae-gyu, who ran the much-feared KCIA, a pillar of Park's Friday shook South Korea, ending Park Chung-hee's stifling rule and ushering in another decade under the military. Kim was executed for insurrection, along with five 46 years later, that night is back in the spotlight as a court retries Kim Jae-gyu to determine if his actions amounted to treason. He has remained a deeply polarising figure — some see him as a killer blinded by power and ambition, others as a patriot who sacrificed himself to set South Korea on the path to democracy. The president he killed is no less divisive, lauded for his country's economic rise and reviled for his authoritarian family fought for the retrial, arguing that he cannot be remembered as a traitor. They will now have their day in the Seoul High Court — hearings began on Wednesday — just as impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol goes on trial for the same charge that sent Kim to the martial law order last December was short-lived but it threw up questions about South Korean democracy — and that may influence how the country sees a man who shot dead a dictator he claimed was on the brink of unleashing Kim trying to seize power for himself or to spark a revolution, as he claimed in court?When news of the shooting broke in the morning, it sent shockwaves through South Korea. Initial reports called it "accidental".What was left of Park's coterie tried to make sense of what had happened. Kim had been a close ally since Park seized power in a coup in 1961. They shared a hometown and had started out together at the military journalist Cho Gab-je acknowledges that Kim seemed uncomfortable with some of Park's actions, but "there's no record that Kim actually acted on those concerns, no evidence he released political prisoners, clashed with Park, or submitted formal objections".Kim told the court he had thought about killing Park at least three times. But history shows he supported Park as he tightened his grip, abolishing direct presidential elections and term limits, allowing him to control the National Assembly and even suspend constitutional rights."My brother was never the kind of person who would commit such an act just to become president," insists his sister Kim Jung-sook, who is now he ran the KCIA, which was notorious for jailing, torturing and even framing innocent students, dissidents and opposition figures with false charges."They tortured people, fabricated charges, and imprisoned them... and if you criticised that, you'd get arrested too," says Father Ham Se-woong, who was imprisoned twice in the 1970s for criticising the was not a saviour many could accept. But that is the mantle he took on, according to court transcripts that were not widely reported at the time. He told the judges he believed it was imperative to stop Park, whose ruthlessness could plunge South Korea into chaos and cost them a critical ally, the United States."I do not wish to beg for my life, as I have found a cause to die for," he said, although he asked the court to spare his men who followed his orders — "innocent sheep", he called them. He said he had hoped to pave the way for a peaceful transition of power, which had eluded his country so hearing about this back then, even a fierce critic like Father Ham tried launching a campaign for him. "He wanted to prevent further bloodshed. That's why we had to save him," he Ham ended up in prison again for his efforts, as the trial became a sensitive subject. The country was under martial law. Days after the trial started — on December 12 — the man who led the investigation into the assassination, General Chun Doo-hwan, seized power in a in the military court moved at lightning speed. On 20 December, it convicted Kim of trying to seize power through murder, and six others of aiding him. Yoo was sentenced to three years in prison for hiding the 20 May the following year, Kim had lost his final appeal. Four days later he was hanged, along with four others. One was spared and another had been executed earlier. Kim died as the army brutally suppressed a pro-democracy uprising, killing 166 civilians in the city of Gwangju."I got the impression that Chun Doo-hwan was trying to quickly wrap up anything related to the previous regime in order to seize power for himself," says Kim says she saw her brother just once through all this, a week before he was executed: "I think he sensed it might be the last time. So he bowed deeply to my mother as a goodbye."Yoo survived but he says after he was free, he was followed for years: "I couldn't get a job. Even when I returned to my hometown, they kept tailing me. I couldn't say a word about the case." He now works as an attendant in a private parking lot outside Kim says her family did not speak up until about 10 years ago. After South Korea became a democracy, Park's image recovered, improved by time and wealth. His daughter became president, often defending his legacy for its economic was her downfall — following massive protests over a corruption scandal — that threw open the door to revisit Kim Jae-gyu's conviction."This case should never have gone to a military court because the assassination happened before martial law was declared," says Lee Sang-hee, the lawyer in charge of his retrial. She adds that the "sloppy transcripts" would have influenced his appeal because the defence was not allowed to record the proceedings."When I reviewed the documents, I couldn't understand how he could be convicted of insurrection when there was such little evidence. And above all, there was torture," she says, which the court cited as a valid reason when it agreed in February to a accepted Kim's statement, which he submitted in his unsuccessful appeal in 1980, alleging "the investigators beat me indiscriminately and used electric torture by wrapping an EE8 phone line around my fingers".Reports at the time alleged that Kim Jae-gyu's wife had been detained and tortured too, along with her brother-in-law and brothers, which officials at the time in her 90s, his wife has always been opposed to a retrial."She never talked about what she had gone through and trembles even now," Kim Jung-sook, the spy chief's sister, Kim is resolute in her defence of her brother, repeatedly emphasising that "he was a man of integrity"."Because we believe that he did not kill the president and his security chief for personal gain, we have been able to endure all of this."The security chief was Cha Ji-cheol, who had been growing closer to Park, and often clashed with Kim as the two men vied for the president's the weeks before the assassination, they differed on how to deal with Kim Young-sam, an outspoken opposition leader who Park saw as a threat. In an interview with the New York Times, the opposition leader had called on the US to end Park's dictatorship. The National Assembly, controlled by Park, expelled decision kicked off huge protests in Kim Young-Sam's strongholds. Cha wanted to crush the uprising, while Kim Jae-gyu advised caution, which would also reassure a Washington that was growing impatient with Park's told the court he warned against firing at protesters, which would only ignite anger — to which Cha said, "three million died in Cambodia, and nothing happened. If we kill one million demonstrators, we'll be fine".That evening at the safe house, the public broadcaster reported that the US ambassador was going to meet Kim angry Park criticised Kim Jae-gyu for not arresting the opposition leader. When Kim pushed back, the court heard, Park retorted: "The agency should be feared, it should prosecute those who deserve it."They sat across from each other, sipping Scotch and sharing a meal. Park sat between two women, a popular singer and a young model. Cha and Park's chief of staff were also terse exchanges continued, and mid-way through a love song, Kim Jae-gyu said, he pulled out the gun, aimed it at Park and told him he needed to change his politics: "Sir, you should approach things with a more magnanimous vision."Turning to a shocked Cha, he cursed as he pulled the trigger, wounding him in the hand as Cha tried to block the shot. Then Kim fired into Park's chest. Outside, acting on his orders, KCIA agents shot dead the president's security detail — two were eating dinner, and two were on tried shooting the president again, but the pistol malfunctioned. He ran out to one of his men, who gave him a revolver. Having returned, he killed a fleeing Cha, walked towards Park, who was leaning against the model as he bled, and shot him in the two women left unharmed after being paid to keep quiet. The president's chief of staff was never then went to the next building, where the army chief he had summoned earlier was waiting. The men left in a car for KCIA likely he didn't argue with Kim — even a shoe-less, suspiciously rattled Kim was powerful, and his men guarded the compound. But en route he was persuaded to go to the army's headquarters, where he was arrested soon after told the court he had planned to use the army, perhaps even impose martial law, to complete the "revolution" and transition to is the crux of the retrial. The prosecution had argued it was a premeditated coup, while Kim claimed far loftier sceptics point to the lack of planning. The gun that jammed was plucked from a safe before dinner, there were enough witnesses to derail the plot, and he did not seem to have a strategy for his "revolution". He did not even make it to the KCIA say it may well have been an impulsive act of revenge by a man whose power was what the army general investigating the murders alleged two days later — Kim, second only to the president, had so much to lose as Park sidelined him in favour of Cha following month, he also charged Kim with attempting a coup."For a charge of insurrection to be proved, the accused must forcibly halt the function of constitutional institutions, but that didn't happen in this case," says lawyer Lee in impeached president Yoon's case — where the court will decide if he directed the military to block parliamentary proceedings — there is no evidence Kim Jae-gyu tried to seize control of state institutions, she South Korea though, the retrial is more than that. Many see it as a defining moment to reflect on the trajectory of a democracy threatened just six months is also an opportunity to re-evaluate Park Chung-hee, whose legacy some say is overstated. "His achievements were real, but so were his faults," says Kim Duol, an economics professor at Myungji University. "Would South Korea's growth have been possible without such an authoritarian regime?"Kim's family hopes his retrial will shed a kinder light on his legacy. Killing Park was "a painful decision", Kim had told the court, but he had "shot at the heart of Yusin [the regime] with the heart of a wild beast".Is that enough to make the former spy chief a hero? That is a question the court cannot answer. — BBC
