Seoul, Feb 14 (EFE).- Some 300 workers, presumed to be from North Korea, arrived in Russia by train at the beginning of February, a South Korean expert said Wednesday, in yet another example of the close cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.
Leader of Russian Communist Party, Gennady Zuganov (L) attends a meeting with Kim Su Gil (Kim Su-kil) (2-R), a full member of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) and an alternate member of the Politburo of the Workers’ Party of Korea, during a visit to the Russian State Duma building, housing the lower house of the Russian Parliament, in Moscow, Russia, 13 February 2024. EFE-EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
“They were seen carrying packages, but in light of their outfits, they were identified as workers at a glance, not as tourists ,” said Cho Han-bum, a senior research fellow at the state-funded Korea Institute for National Unification, South Korean agency Yonhap reported.
If confirmed, this would be a volation of United Nations Security Council resolutions, which ban North Koreans from working abroad.
The news also coincides with the meeting these days between Kim Su-gil, alternate member of the political bureau of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, and the leader of the Russian Federation Communist Party, Gennady Zyuganov, according to Russian media.
Kim met Zyuganov on Tuesday in the lower house of Russia’s legislature, where they reportedly discussed new ways to strengthen diplomatic relations, state-owned RIA Novosti news agency said.
In early February, a group of a 100 Russian tourists arrived in Pyongyang, the first foreign group to enter the country after it completely sealed its borders due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Russian embassy in the North Korean capital.
Pyongyang has opted to boost ties with Beijing and Moscow, which have vetoed new sanctions against it and seem to provide certain security guarantees to it in a global framework marked by wars in Israel and Ukraine and growing acrimony between autocracies and countries that are considered democratic. EFE
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