Envoys from China and Russia are set to become the first foreign delegations to enter North Korea since the COVID-19 pandemic started, a sign of opening by the isolated country.
Led by Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu, the Russian delegation will pay “a congratulatory visit” to mark the 70th anniversary tomorrow of the end of fighting in the 1950-1953 Korean War, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported yesterday.
The dispatch came hours after KCNA said a Chinese group led by Li Hongzhong (李鴻忠), who sits on the Chinese Communist Party’s 24-member politburo, would also visit for the event.
Photo: Reuters / Korean Central News Agency
“We believe the visit will be conducive to promoting the sound and stable development of [bilateral] relations, contributing to regional peace and stability, and creating conditions for a political settlement of the [Korean] Peninsula issue,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning (毛寧) told a daily briefing in Beijing yesterday.
The trips come as North Korea gradually opens up to Beijing, its biggest benefactor and trade partner, and its neighbor to the northeast, Russia. North Korea sealed its borders soon after the pandemic began in 2020, slamming the brakes on trade.
Satellite images show that North Korea is planning a military parade for the war anniversary, NK News reported.
The grinding conflict pitted the Chinese and North Koreans against US-led UN forces and South Korea. It ended with an Armistice Agreement that halted the stalemate, but North Korea, China and some former communist bloc states celebrate July 27 as a victory. The Soviet Union, North Korea’s most important partner at the time of the war, did not take part in the fighting, but was instrumental in offering military and political support for Pyongyang.
The delegations would be making the first official visit by foreigners in about three years, said NK News, a media outlet based in Seoul that specializes in news and data about North Korea.
Pyongyang has not sent any delegations abroad during that period, it added.
North Korea granted special permission earlier this year so Chinese Ambassador Wang Yajun (王亞軍) could enter the country and start his assignment.
There has been no indication that North Korea is ready to accept foreign tourists, who have in the past provided cash for the sanctions-hit nation.
Russia and China have used their veto power at the UN Security Council in the past few months to block new punishments on Kim Jong-un’s government for its tests of ballistic missiles.
Chinese officials said in September last year that the main train route with North Korea was reopening after a hiatus of several months due to COVID-19.
The rail line between Dandong, China, and Sinuiju in North Korea is Kim’s main link to the world’s No. 2 economy.
The few democracies with embassies in Pyongyang withdrew their staff during the pandemic. That complicates attempts by the US to communicate with Kim’s government over a US soldier who crossed into North Korea last week.
Additional reporting by AP
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