Kim Jong Un in Russia: The North Korean leader visits aviation factories
Kim Jong Un, who rarely travels, and who arrived in Russia on Tuesday, continues his official visit, which is Friday morning in the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, in the Far East of Russia. The regional governor and other officials were waiting for him on a red carpet at the train station in the city located on the banks of the long river that runs through Siberia and is part of the border between Russia and China. “In accordance with Russian tradition for distinguished guests, Kim was welcomed with bread and salt,” Russian news agency TASS wrote. The agency reported that the North Korean leader was then transferred to the Komsomolsk Aircraft Factory, where Sukhoi warplanes and other equipment are produced, and then to the second factory designated for civilian aircraft.
Kim, appointed by Vice-Premier Minister of Russia Denis Manturov and the North Korean military responsibilities in uniform, was monitored by the Russian television network to inspect the cockpit with a combat pendant that the Russian responsibilities expand their capacity via translator. Then His Highness inspected the workshops where the plane’s cabins and wings are manufactured.
With approving nods, Kim watched a test flight of the Su-35 fighter jet, one of Russia’s newest models, which is manufactured in Komsomolsk-on-Amur and exported to several countries. The factory also manufactures Su-57 aircraft and civilian aircraft.
“Together we resist the collective pressures of the West”
Regional Governor Mikhail Degtyarev wrote on the messaging app Telegram that Kim saw facilities producing parts for military aircraft as well as the civilian Superjet-100 plane, which Russia aims to produce at another factory in the city, without imported components.
“Our fathers and grandfathers fought together against Japanese militarism, our country supported North Korea in its fight against the imperial ambitions of the United States in the 1950s, and today we resist collective pressure from the West,” Degtyarev said.
On Wednesday, during his first official trip abroad since the Covid epidemic, the North Korean leader met with Vladimir Putin at the Vostochny Space Base (east), with the aim of presenting the ties between their two countries, especially the military. The two leaders offered each other a rifle as a shining symbol of their alliance.
The Russian president, who will not accompany his counterpart on Friday, referred to Kim’s visit to Komsomolsk before attending a military “demonstration” of the Russian Pacific Fleet in Vladivostok, where the two men had already met in 2019. At present, nothing has been officially announced. About a possible agreement to deliver equipment or military cooperation between the two countries to allow Russia to continue its offensive in Ukraine.
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