North Korea’s leader, Kin Jong-un, visited a plant that makes fighter jets in the far eastern Russian city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur on Friday, Russian state media reported, continuing a trip that has focused heavily on increasing military ties with Moscow.
Kim arrived in far eastern Russia on Tuesday. The next day, he met President Vladimir Putin of Russia at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, where he viewed powerful rockets similar to the ones that the North hopes to build to launch military satellites.
He arrived in Komsomolsk-on-Amur on Friday morning and visited the Yuri Gagarin aircraft plant, where Russian civilian and military planes are made, including Su-35 and Su-57 fighter jets, according to Tass, the Russian state news agency. The plant is named after the Soviet cosmonaut who was the first person in space.
A short video clip released by the Russian news outlet RIA Novosti on Friday showed Russian officials and North Korean bodyguards waiting at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur train station with a red carpet as Kim’s green armoured personal train pulled in. In accordance with a Russian tradition, Kim was welcomed with bread and salt at the station.
Kim’s visit to the Russian aviation factory highlighted his ambitions to modernise his country’s ageing air force. Many of its warplanes are museum pieces — old Soviet models provided by Moscow during the 1950-53 Korean War. North Korea has also struggled to secure fuel and parts for its planes.
In 2013, when Panamanian authorities stopped the North Korean cargo ship Chong Chon Gang, they found 25 shipping containers loaded with two disassembled MIG-21 jet fighters, 15 MIG-21 engines, and missile and other arms components from Cuba. They were hidden under 10,000 tons of sugar. During the Kim-Putin meeting earlier this week, Russia and North Korea agreed to broad cooperation in the face of their common foe.
