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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock spoke Friday in Washington, both reiterating their long-term support for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russia.

Speaking to reporters following their talks, Blinken said Germany and the United States, along with dozens of other nations around the world, are committed to providing military, economic and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. He said they also discussed Ukraine’s long-term ability not only to survive but to thrive following Russia’s invasion.

Baerbock echoed Blinken’s remarks, saying support for Ukraine goes beyond arms deliveries to include humanitarian issues and repairing infrastructure. She said she discussed with Blinken how the U.S. and Germany can dovetail their assistance to Ukraine more closely.

The two top diplomats were asked about Ukraine’s ongoing requests for long-range missiles systems that could reach deep into Russia and the West’s reluctance to provide them.

Baerbock said Germany and other NATO allies have told Ukraine from the beginning of Russia’s invasion that arms supplies would be limited to Ukraine’s self-defense and reclaiming territory within Ukraine.

The German foreign minister has been in the United States much of this week, traveling on Tuesday and Wednesday to Texas, where she visited an air base where German pilots are trained and meeting Thursday with U.S. lawmakers to discuss their continued support for Ukraine.

Ukraine grain shipments

Blinken said he and Baerbock also discussed the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which Russia ended in July, and alternatives to getting grain out of Ukraine and to developing nations that need it.

Following a meeting on Friday in Bucharest with Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, Romanian Transport Minister Sorin Grindeanu said the nation planned to double the monthly transit capacity for Ukrainian grain through its Constanta port to 4 million metric tons in the coming months.

Speaking at a joint news conference, Kubrakov said they hope to double the port’s capacity by the beginning of October, which could help Ukraine solve at least half of its export issues.

Ukraine military advances

Ukraine’s military said Friday it has recaptured the village of Andriivka, about 10 kilometers south of the key front-line, Russian-occupied city of Bakhmut, following intense battles with Russian troops.

The latest victory in Ukraine’s protracted, multipronged counteroffensive comes just days ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s expected visit to Washington.

Also Friday, Britain’s Defense Ministry confirmed that a missile strike targeting the naval headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Crimea this week delivered a blow that might have crippled portions of the facility for weeks or possibly months to come.

The landing ship Minsk and the Kilo 636.3 class submarine Rostov-on-Don were undergoing maintenance at the Sevmorzavod shipyard in the base’s dry docks when the missiles hit during a predawn strike Wednesday.

Open-source evidence, the ministry said, “indicates the Minsk has almost certainly been functionally destroyed, while the Rostov has likely suffered catastrophic damage.”

According to the ministry’s report, any effort to get the submarine up and running would likely take many years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

In addition, the British ministry said there is also “a realistic possibility” that the intricate task of removing the damaged vessels from the dry docks could put the docks out of commission for months and present Russia “with a significant challenge in sustaining fleet maintenance.”

According to the British ministry, the Rostov was one of the four Black Sea fleet’s cruise-missile capable submarines that “have played a major role in striking Ukraine and projecting Russian power across the Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean.”

Zelenskyy to visit White House

Friday’s developments precede Zelenskyy’s anticipated arrival in Washington next week as the U.S. Congress continues to debate $21 billion more in aid to Ukraine to support its fight against Russia.

U.S. lawmakers are increasingly divided whether to provide Ukraine with more aid. President Joe Biden is seeking $13 billion in military aid and $8 billion in humanitarian aid, but some Republican lawmakers oppose sending more funding.

Zelenskyy is expected to meet with Biden next week at the White House after the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York.

Although Ukraine’s counteroffensive push against the Russian invasion has been slower than expected, Zelenskyy celebrated Thursday what he described as Ukraine’s destruction of a Russian air defense system on the annexed Crimean Peninsula.

“A special mention should be made to the entire personnel of the Security Service of Ukraine as well as our naval forces,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video message. “The invaders’ air defense system was destroyed. Very significant, well done!”

Some information in this article came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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One American and two Russian space crew members blasted off Friday aboard a Russian spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a mission to the International Space Station.

NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub lifted off on the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft at 8:44 p.m. local time. O’Hara will spend six months on the ISS while Kononenko and Chub will spend a year there.

Neither O’Hara nor Chub has ever flown to space before, but they will be flying with veteran cosmonaut and mission commander Kononenko, who has made the trip four times already. The trio should arrive at the ISS after a three-hour flight.

When they get to the ISS, their module will dock and when the hatches open they will be met by seven astronauts and cosmonauts from the U.S., Russia, Denmark and Japan. Later in September, three of the ISS crew will depart, including NASA astronaut Frank Rubio who will have been there for more than a year.

According to NASA, when mission commander Kononenko finishes his tour to space in a year’s time, he will hold the record for the person who has spent the longest amount of time — more than a thousand days — in space.
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The European Union on Friday threw its weight behind a plan to protect the Amazon rainforest, pledging to coordinate financial contributions from EU members and make sure the money was spent as intended under its Global Gateway investment plan.

Team Europe, which includes EU members states and institutions such as the European Investment Bank, will coordinate 260 million euros ($277 million) already pledged by Spain, Italy, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands to curb deforestation in the Amazon.

On top of that, the EU will add an undisclosed amount to protect the forest from logging. It will come from the EU’s Global Gateway plan of investment in Latin America, where Amazon rainforest protection is one of the flagship projects.

Under the Global Gateway project, the EU pledged in July to invest 45 billion euros ($48 billion) in Latin America by 2027, and the plan will be discussed in more detail on Friday among EU and Latin American finance ministers in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

The ministers are looking to ensure the money is delivered and spent as intended, a source with direct knowledge of the negotiations said, asking not to be named.

In the past, the European Commission has been criticized for pledging large amounts of investment to developing regions without any mechanisms to verify that the money was actually disbursed.

Now the commission will take the lead in coordinating the flow of cash, integrating individual country donations into a donor platform launched by the Inter-American Development Bank on Friday on the sidelines of the ministers’ meeting.

More than half of global destruction of old-growth tropical rainforests has taken place in the Amazon and bordering forests since 2002. Rainforests, in particular the Amazon, absorb vast amounts of carbon dioxide and are key in shaping the Earth’s climate, making them vital to address climate change.
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North Korea’s Kim Jong Un continued his official visit to Russia on Friday, stopping to inspect a fighter jet factory that is under Western sanctions due to the war in Ukraine.

The visit comes just days after Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a rare summit that stoked Western concerns. There is unease that a revived Moscow-Pyongyang axis could strengthen Russia’s military in Ukraine and bolster Pyongyang’s missile program.

During Wednesday’s talks, Kim and Putin discussed military matters, the war in Ukraine and Russian help for North Korea’s satellite program.

On Friday, South Korea and the United States said that military cooperation between the two countries was a violation of United Nations sanctions and that the allies would ensure there is a price to pay.

But it was not immediately clear what — if any — leverage the United States and its Asian allies would have over either Russia or North Korea, which both have close ties to China.

In Russia’s Far East, the 39-year-old North Korean leader was shown on Russian state television carefully inspecting the cockpit of a fighter jet as Russian officials explained its capabilities via a translator.

Russia has gone out of its way to publicize the visit and drop repeated hints about the prospect of military cooperation with North Korea, which was formed in 1948 with the backing of the Soviet Union.

For Putin, who says Russia is locked in an existential battle with the West over Ukraine, courting Kim allows him to needle Washington and its Asian allies while potentially securing a supply of artillery for his war in Ukraine.

Putin also could give Kim access to some of Russia’s sensitive missile and other technology.

Washington has accused North Korea of providing arms to Russia, which has the world’s biggest store of nuclear warheads, but it is unclear whether any deliveries have been made. Pyongyang and Moscow have denied that North Korea would supply arms to Russia.

U.S. and South Korean officials have called on Moscow to show responsibility as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.

There was no comment from either Kim or Putin on the U.S. warnings, although Russian diplomats pushed back against the criticism. The Kremlin says that it abides by U.N. sanctions, but that it has a right to develop neighborly relations, including on sensitive topics.
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Britain, France and Germany announced Thursday they will keep their sanctions on Iran related to the Mideast country’s atomic program and development of ballistic missiles. The measures were to expire in October under a timetable spelled out in the now defunct nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

In a joint statement, the three European allies known as E3 and which had helped negotiate the nuclear deal, said they would retain their sanctions in a “direct response to Iran’s consistent and severe non-compliance” with the accord, also known by its official name as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA.

The measures ban Iran from developing ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons and bar anyone from buying, selling or transferring drones and missiles to and from Iran. They also include an asset freeze for several Iranian individuals and entities involved in the nuclear and ballistic missile program.

Iran has violated the sanctions by developing and testing ballistic missiles and sending drones to Russia for its war on Ukraine.

The sanctions will remain in place until Tehran “is fully compliant” with the deal, the E3 said. The sanctions, according to the accord from eight years ago, were to expire Oct. 18.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry called the European decision an “illegal, provocative action” that will hamper cooperation, in comments quoted by the country’s official news agency IRNA.

“The actions of the European parties will definitely have negative effects on the efforts to manage the tension and create a suitable environment for more cooperation between the JCPOA parties,” the ministry said.

The 2015 nuclear deal was meant to ensure that Iran could not develop atomic weapons. Under the accord, Tehran agreed to limit enrichment of uranium to levels necessary for nuclear power in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

In 2018, then-President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the United States out of the accord, saying he would negotiate a stronger deal, but that did not happen. Iran began breaking the terms a year later and is now enriching uranium to nearly weapons-grade levels, according to a report by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog.

Formal talks to try to find a roadmap to restart the deal collapsed in August 2022.

The E3 have informed the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, about their decision, the statement said. Borrell, in turn, said he had forwarded the E3 letter to other signatories of the 2015 deal — China, Russia and Iran.

The development comes at a delicate moment as the United States is preparing to finalize a prisoner swap with Iran that would include the unfreezing of Iranian assets held in South Korean banks worth $6 billion.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters that Washington was in touch with the European allies over “the appropriate next steps.”

“We are working closely with our European allies, including members, of course, of the E3, to address the continued threat that Iran poses including on missiles and arms transfers with the extensive range of unilateral and multilateral tools that are at our disposal,” he said.

Iran has long denied ever seeking nuclear weapons and continues to insist that its program is entirely for peaceful purposes, though Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, has warned that Tehran has enough enriched uranium for “several” nuclear bombs if it chose to build them.

Under the terms of the nuclear deal, a U.N. arms embargo against Tehran will expire on Oct. 18, after which countries that do not adopt similar sanctions on their own as the E3 — likely Russia and perhaps also China — will no longer be bound by the U.N. restrictions on Iran.

However, Iran has lately slowed the pace at which it is enriching uranium, according to a report by the IAEA that was seen by The Associated Press earlier this month. That could be a sign Tehran is trying to ease tensions after years of strain between it and the U.S.

“The decision makes sense,” Henry Rome, an analyst with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said of the European decision. “The real question is how Iran will react. Given the broader de-escalation efforts under way, I would expect Iran not to act rashly, but we never know.”
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China, watching this week’s historic Russia-North Korea summit from the sidelines, is likely to welcome a boost for President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine but worry that its longtime client state in Pyongyang could be slipping from its grasp, experts say.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s green bulletproof train headed to Komsomolsk-on-Amur, a city in Russia’s far Khabarovsk region, on Thursday after his rare summit with Putin a day earlier, according to Yonhap News in Seoul.

In Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Kim is expected to meet with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and visit a manufacturing facility that produces Sukhoi fighter jets. From there, he will head toward Vladivostok to inspect Russia’s Pacific fleet before returning to Pyongyang.

China and Russia, autocratic socialist states, have supported each other for decades. The two have become closer than ever as they seek to counter the United States and its allies in Europe and Asia. But experts say the shift by North Korea, their junior partner and socialist neighbor, toward Moscow may make Beijing feel as if Kim has found a new suitor.

Kim’s summit with Putin on Wednesday at the Vostochny spaceport in Russia’s far eastern Amur region reset Pyongyang’s strategic ties with Moscow based on their common military needs and goals, experts said.

Putin needs artillery shells and ammunition to sustain his war in Ukraine. Kim needs technological help to send a spy satellite into orbit after failed attempts in May and August.

Their converging needs brought them together for the first time since April 2019.

‘That’s why we came here’

Although specifics about this week’s summit were not announced in public, both Kim and Putin seem to have suggested they would meet each other’s needs in defiance of international sanctions and concerns.

“The relationship between Russia and North Korea that’s moving forward now is in violation of numerous U.N. Security Council resolutions,” said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a podcast on Wednesday. “We don’t want to see Russia be in a position where it can strengthen the capabilities it’s bringing to dealing with the aggression on Ukraine, and we also don’t want to see North Korea benefiting from whatever technologies it might get from Russia.”

Before their meeting, Putin gave Kim a tour of the spaceport and suggested he would provide satellite technology that Kim has been trying to hone. “That’s why we came here,” he said.

Prior to their closed-door, one-on-one meeting, Kim said Pyongyang would stand with Moscow in its “just fight against hegemonic forces” and pledged to provide “full and unconditional support for all measures” taken by Russia in its war in Ukraine.

Kim also said Pyongyang’s relationship with Moscow was its “top priority.”

Putin said before the one-on-one meeting that he planned to discuss with Kim issues including the economy, humanitarian aid and the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

At a reception following their talks, Putin accepted Kim’s offer to visit Pyongyang, according to North Korea’s state media KCNA.

As North Korea’s primary aid provider and top trading partner, China has for years held considerable leverage over Pyongyang. But now, experts say, Beijing might feel anxious that Pyongyang is leaning too much toward Moscow and starting to slip from its influence.

Gary Samore, former White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction during the Obama administration, said China probably feels ambivalent about the arms deals.

“On one hand, Beijing wants Putin to survive the Ukraine war, so it probably welcomes North Korean military aid to Russia,” Samore said. “On the other hand, Beijing may be nervous that Russian transfer of advanced military technology to North Korea could increase tensions on the Korean Peninsula and strengthen the U.S.-[South Korea]-Japan alliance.”

South Korea, Japan, US reflect on pledge

In August, Washington, Seoul and Tokyo agreed to bolster their defenses against North Korea at their summit at Camp David. They agreed to hold regular multidomain trilateral exercises and share live ballistic missile defense warning data.

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan spoke with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts on Thursday about the Putin-Kim meeting and stressed the importance of their commitment to consult against common threats — a pledge made at Camp David — and to cooperate in their efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

Experts said China is reluctant to match Russia in providing advanced weapons technologies to North Korea, at least explicitly. They said Beijing does not want to taint its international image by aiding a pariah state, risk further straining its relations with the U.S., and be on the road to become isolated like Russia.

China increasingly wants to be “a world power” and is thinking “globally, not just regionally,” said Ken Gause, director of special projects for the Strategy and Policy Analysis Program at research group CNA and an expert on North Korean leadership.

“They can’t go overboard in terms of the defense stuff in Northeast Asia because it can have negative effects on what they’re doing in the world,” including Beijing’s global Belt and Road Initiative, Gause said.

Gause said Beijing is likely to use its economic leverage over Russia to discourage Moscow from jeopardizing the security of Northeast Asia by giving Pyongyang “all kinds of sensitive technology.”

He said what North Korea gets from Russia will indicate Moscow’s stance toward Beijing. If Pyongyang gets advanced military technology such as submarine technology, it shows that “Russia is extremely desperate” and “Russia doesn’t care about what the Chinese say.”

Economic cooperation with China

Russia has become economically dependent on China since its invasion of Ukraine, which triggered multiple sanctions by the U.S. and its allies and partners.

Putin said at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Tuesday that Moscow’s economic cooperation with Beijing had “reached a very high level,” according to Russian state-run TASS news agency.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is planning to visit Moscow on Monday to hold talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Wednesday, according to Interfax news based in Moscow.

Despite differences that might exist among the three autocratic states, Zack Cooper, former deputy national security adviser at the National Security Council and current fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said it would be difficult to drive “a serious wedge” into Beijing-Moscow-Pyongyang relations as they “increasingly” move in the direction of opposing the U.S. and its key allies.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a press briefing in Beijing on Thursday that “China and Russia have been in close communication on bilateral ties and international and regional issues.”
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The new trade corridor linking India and the Mideast to Europe is being hailed as a modern version of the Spice Route, the road of yore that connected East and West — and as a way to counter China’s modern Belt and Road Initiative. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Washington on how the U.S. and allies are promoting the rail and maritime route.
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Italy is considering whether to leave the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s multibillion-dollar global trade and infrastructure program, by the end of the year. The dilemma comes amid geopolitical pressures from Western allies and domestic disappointment that the program has not delivered the economic benefits that the country hoped for.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni spoke to reporters after meeting the Chinese delegation at last week’s G20 summit in New Delhi.

“There are European nations which in recent years haven’t been part of the Belt and Road but have been able to forge more favorable relations [with China] than we have sometimes managed,” Meloni said. “The issue is how to guarantee a partnership that is beneficial for both sides, leaving aside the decision that we will take on the BRI.”

BRI benefits?

Italy signed on to China’s BRI in 2019, the only member of the Group of 7 most advanced economies — including Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States — to do so. But Italy has not received the expected economic benefits, Filippo Boni, a lecturer in politics and international studies at the Open University in England, told VOA.

“From the Italian side, the idea was to both try and boost its exports but also to make a political move towards Brussels, as a signal that Italy was able to sign successful deals with third countries independently from the European Union,” Boni said, adding that Meloni is seeking to make a clear break with previous [Italian] governments by forging new relationships with China and the EU.

“There is a growing realization that the memorandum of understanding that was signed with China in March 2019 did not really bring the benefits that were expected,” he said. “Trade balance is still heavily tilted in China’s favor, and Italian exports to China did not pick up, did not see the increase that those who wanted [the BRI] were envisaging and hoping for.”

Geopolitics

There are also geopolitical reasons for Italy rethinking its membership in China’s BRI, said Luigi Scazzieri, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform.

“There’s come to be a certain diplomatic stigma attached to it, partly because the whole of the West is rethinking its relationship with China,” Scazzieri told VOA. “And Italy being the only G7 country having signed up to the Belt and Road makes it, on the other hand, look like it’s trying to get closer to Beijing.”

Italy’s Western allies are reducing their reliance on some Chinese imports and restricting the sale of technologies such as advanced semiconductors to Beijing.

In recent years, Italy’s government has blocked the sale of some of its biggest companies to Chinese firms, such as the tire maker Pirelli, under its so-called Golden Power rules.

“It’s really a clear signal the government in Rome is sending to its partners in the European Union, and Washington most importantly, about Italy’s position on the international chess board,” Boni said.

China’s response

Questioned about Italy’s potential departure from the BRI this week, China’s Foreign Ministry insisted the program brings benefits to its members.

“The Belt and Road Initiative has attracted more than 150 countries and a wide range of partners in various fields over the past 10 years and has brought tangible benefits to the people of all countries,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters. “It is in the interests of all participating countries to further tap the potential of cooperation.”

Italy is choosing its language carefully and said it wants to boost trade with Beijing outside the BRI, Scazzieri said.

“The fear of Beijing reacting in a negative way has been precisely why Meloni has been quite careful about how to go about extracting Italy from BRI,” he said.

Italy already has a strategic partnership with China, an agreement Beijing has signed with many countries aimed at fostering economic and cultural ties. It’s likely Rome will seek to amend that document in the hope of replacing its BRI membership with a looser relationship.

“Given the centrality that ‘strategic partnerships’ have in China’s foreign policy — as of the end of last year, there were 110 strategic partnerships that China signed with countries globally — I think it might be a good way out of the Belt and Road Initiative for both countries to say, ‘We’re still engaged in bilateral cooperation,’ ” Boni said.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appears to be using this week’s much-heralded summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin to tighten his control over a country struggling with international sanctions and a pandemic-stricken economy, analysts said.

Putin and Kim met on Wednesday at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a rocket launch facility in the Russian Far East, for their first summit in more than four years.

North Kores’s official Korean Central News Agency said Putin and Kim vowed to strengthen “strategic and tactical cooperation” without providing details.

Concern over arms deal

Washington suspects Pyongyang may supply Moscow with munitions for its war in Ukraine in return for help from Moscow in overcoming critical barriers to building intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear-propelled submarines, and military reconnaissance satellites.

After the meeting, the U.S. warned North Korea against supplying arms to Russia.

“No nation on the planet, nobody should be helping Mr. Putin kill innocent Ukrainians. And if they decide to move forward with some sort of arms deals, well, obviously we’ll take a measure of that, and we’ll deal with it appropriately,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Wednesday.

Analysts, however, say Kim might be looking for more than technical assistance in his weapons programs.

Seong Ok Yoo, a former South Korean intelligence official who extensively dealt with North Korea, said Kim is trying to use the summit as a propaganda tool to elevate his image globally while seeking greater internal unity. 

“Kim seeks international recognition. He believes he can push the U.S. to soften its attitude toward him by touting his presence,” said Yoo, who played a key role in an inter-Korean summit in 2007.

“He wants to ensure the U.S. takes him seriously,” Yoo added.

Dog-eared strategy

Jong Dae Shin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said using an international event as a tool to rule a country is a long-established practice for members of North Korea’s ruling Kim dynasty.

For a country like North Korea, which has been isolated for many decades by heavy sanctions, the dog-eared ruling strategy has served the regime by re-enforcing loyalty and devotion among the citizens, according to Shin.

Shin said Kim seems to follow the path of his predecessors.

For Kim, a serious opportunity to enhance his standing came in 2018, when he started rapprochement with a series of summits with the leaders of China, South Korea, and the U.S.

Kim’s summit diplomacy culminated in the historic meeting with former President Donald Trump in June 2018 in Singapore, at the time hailed as a possible path to peace on the Korean Peninsula.

The two leaders met in February 2019 in Hanoi for their second summit, but they failed to reach an agreement.

Analysts say recent geopolitical developments, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the U.S.-China strategic competition, give Kim another chance to elevate his image.

Accoridng to them, Kim sees a golden opportunity to advance his country’s weapons programs with few repercussions and increase its leverage with Russia and China, which are at odds with the U.S.

In 2022, North Korea conducted a record number of missile tests in violation of multiple U.N. sanctions.

The U.N. Security Council, however, failed to act because of objections by Russia and China, which have veto power. 

In December 2017, the council passed tough sanctions against North Korea in response to the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile by Pyongyang with the support of Russia and China.  

Increased leverage

Yoo believes North Korea’s leverage with Russia has increased because of Moscow’s confrontation with Washington over the war in Ukraine. 

“There is a reversal of position from the previous summit,” said Yoo, referring to the summit between Russia and North Korea in April 2019.

Then, Kim turned to Putin for diplomatic support following the failed summit with Trump but now Russia, hungry for ammunitions, is reaching out to Kim, according to Yoo.

“In 2019, Kim had no choice but to rely on Putin to break out of diplomatic isolation. Now, Kim is in the driver’s seat,” said Cho Han-Bum, senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

International news coverage of the latest summit between Putin and Kim underscored the lavish welcome Putin prepared for the North Korean leader.

Some South Korean news outlets reported that Putin, who is known for showing up late for meetings with foreign leaders, waited for Kim for 30 minutes at the meeting venue.

The Associated Press reported that Putin greeted Kim with a handshake of about 40 seconds.  

North Korea state media hailed the summit as a “new milestone” for the development of relations between Pyongyang and Moscow.

Internal pressure

This week’s summit took place as North Korea appears to be facing severe food shortages.

Elizabeth Salmon, the U.N. special rapporteur on North Korea’s human rights, told a Security Council meeting last month some people are dying “due to a combination of malnutrition, diseases and lack of access to health care.”

In March, South Korean lawmakers briefed by the country’s main intelligence agency told reporters there was a surge of deaths from starvation and suicide due to acute food shortages.

Intae Kim, a former North Korean defector who is now the chief research fellow at the Institute for National Security Strategy (INSS), a think tank run by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, said Kim has pursued a policy of pushing economic growth and expanding nuclear development simultaneously since he took power in December 2011.

While the North Korean leader has advanced the country’s nuclear program, his economic plan has completely failed, according to Kim.

Cha Du Hyeogn, principal fellow at South Korea’s Asan Institute, said Kim is trying to send a message to his people with the latest summit that he is working hard to salvage the country’s economy crippled by sanctions, the pandemic and natural disasters.

Kim’s decision to ride a slow train for his journey instead of a short flight might be an attempt to send the message, according to Cha.

“The train ride reminded me of his journey to Hanoi,” said Cha, referring to Kim’s second summit with Trump.

At the time, Kim took a 60-hour train trip for the summit.

“Kim might have intended to promote an image of a leader who would be willing to take a long journey for his people,” said Cha.
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Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday it has expelled two U.S. Embassy employees from the country, accusing them of working with a Russian national that Moscow had previously accused of spying.

In a statement, the foreign ministry said it had summoned U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy and informed her that the two diplomats — Jeff Sillin and David Bernstein — conducted “illegal activities by liaising with a Russian citizen, Robert Shonov,” and they must leave the territory of Russia within seven days.

Shonov had worked as a local employee at the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Vladivostok for more than 25 years until Russia ordered the termination of the U.S. mission’s local staff in 2021.

Russia’s Federal Security Service — the FSB — arrested Shonov in May and accused him of cooperating “on a confidential basis with a foreign state,” alleging he passed information to the United States about Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Last month, the FSB announced it planned to interrogate Sillin and Bernstein after it accused them of directing Shonov to gather information.

At a news briefing in Washington Thursday, U.S. State Department spokesman Matt Miller reacted to Russia’s move, saying, “This unprovoked expulsion of our diplomatic personnel is wholly without merit.”

Referring to Shonov, Miller said he “was arrested for the supposedly nefarious task of performing such activities as providing our embassy with media clips. Yet again, Russia has chosen confrontation and escalation over constructive diplomatic engagement.”

VOA State Department Correspondent Cindy Saine contributed to this report.
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The luxury cruise ship MV Ocean Explorer was “successfully” pulled free in Greenland on Thursday, three days after running aground with 206 people on board, authorities and the ship’s owner said.

The ship was freed by a fisheries research vessel at high tide, said the cruise ship’s owner, Copenhagen-based SunStone Ships and the Arctic Command, which had been coordinating the operation.

It was done “based on a pull from the vessel (owned by the Greenland government) and vessel’s own power. There have not been any injuries to anybody onboard, no pollution of the environment and no breach of the hull.” The name of the Greenland ship was Tarajoq and it belongs to the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, a government agency.

The ship’s owner added that “the vessel and its passengers will now be positioned to a port where the vessel’s bottom damages can be assessed, and the passengers will be taken to a port from which they can be flown back home.”

The cruise ship ran aground above the Arctic Circle on Monday in Alpefjord, which is in the Northeast Greenland National Park, the world’s northernmost national park. The park is nearly the size of France and Spain combined, and approximately 80% is permanently covered by an ice sheet. Alpefjord sits about 240 kilometers (149 miles) away from the closest settlement, Ittoqqortoormiit, which itself is nearly 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) from the country’s capital, Nuuk.

The Bahamas-flagged cruise ship has passengers from Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States. It has an inverted bow, shaped like the one on a submarine, 77 cabins, 151 passenger beds and 99 beds for crew, and several restaurants.

The owner also had “arranged additional tug assistance in case it was needed, however, this has now been canceled.”

Earlier Thursday, Australia-based Aurora Expeditions which has chartered the ship, said that three passengers had COVID-19.

“These passengers are currently in isolation. They are looked after by our onboard doctor, medical team and crew, and they are doing well,” Aurora Expeditions said in a statement. The others on the MV Ocean Explorer were “safe and healthy,” it added.

Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald quoted a retiree from Australia, Steven Fraser, who is on the ship, saying: “Everyone’s in good spirits. It’s a little bit frustrating, but we are in a beautiful part of the world.”

Fraser told the newspaper that he himself had come down with COVID-19 on the ship.

It added that “the vessel and its passengers will now be positioned to a port where the vessel’s bottom damages can be assessed, and the passengers will be taken to a port from which they can be flown back home.”

The cruise ship ran aground above the Arctic Circle on Monday in Alpefjord, which is in the Northeast Greenland National Park, the world’s northernmost national park.

The park is nearly the size of France and Spain combined, and approximately 80% is permanently covered by an ice sheet. Alpefjord sits about 240 kilometers (149 miles) away from the closest settlement, Ittoqqortoormiit, which itself is nearly 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) from the country’s capital, Nuuk.

The Bahamas-flagged cruise ship has passengers from Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States. It has an inverted bow, shaped like the one on a submarine, 77 cabins, 151 passenger beds and 99 beds for crew, and several restaurants.

Denmark’s Danish Maritime Authority have asked police in Greenland to investigate why the ship ran aground and whether any laws had been violated, a police statement said, adding that no one has been charged or arrested. An officer had been on board the ship to carry out “initial investigative steps, which, among other things, involve questioning the crew and other relevant persons on board,” it added.

The cruise liner began its latest trip on Sept. 2 in Kirkenes, in Arctic Norway, and was due to return to Bergen, Norway, on Sept. 22, according to SunStone Ships.

The primary mission of the Joint Arctic Command is to ensure Danish sovereignty by monitoring the area around the Faeroe Islands and Greenland, including the Arctic Ocean in the north. Greenland is a semi-independent territory that is part of the Danish realm, as are the Faeroe Islands.
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The first truckload of Russian humanitarian aid has arrived this week in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan, although Armenian authorities, activists and citizens say that Azerbaijani troops continue to block access from Armenia. Reporter Ricardo Marquina traveled to areas near the enclave on the Armenian side. Marcus Harton narrates his report from the Armenian capital, Yerevan.
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