Russian defense minister visits North Korea to talk with military and political leaders

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov arrived in North Korea on Friday for talks with North Korean military and political leaders, the ministry said.

The TASS news agency report citing the ministry didn’t specify who Belousov would be meeting or the purpose of the talks. North Korean state media didn’t immediately confirm the visit.

Belousov, a former economist, replaced Sergei Shoigu as defense minister in May after Russian President Vladimir Putin started a fifth term in power.

The visit came days after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol met with a Ukrainian delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and called for the two countries to formulate unspecified countermeasures in response to North Korea’s dispatch of thousands of troops to Russia in support of its war fighting against Ukraine.

The United States and its allies have said that North Korea has sent more than 10,000 soldiers to Russia in recent weeks and that some of those troops have already begun engaging in combat.

North Korea has also been accused of supplying artillery systems, missiles and other military equipment to Russia that may help Russian President Vladmir Putin further extend an almost three-year war. There are also concerns in Seoul that North Korea in exchange for its troops and arms supplies could receive Russian technology transfers that could potentially advance the threat posed by leader Kim Jong Un’s nuclear weapons and missile program.