Russian-North Korean relations

After the end of World War II and the expulsion of Japanese troops from Korea, the territory of the Korean Peninsula was divided along the 38th parallel. North of it were Soviet troops, south - American. In 1948 , a pro-Soviet communist government was formed in the northern part of the peninsula, led by Kim Il Sung , and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was formed . On October 12 of the same year, the USSR became the first state to recognize the new government. During the war of 1950-1953, the Soviet Union together with China actively supported the DPRK. In 1961 , a basic bilateral Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance was signed. Subsequently, during the period of the Sino-Soviet split, the DPRK took a neutral position, maintaining friendly relations with both the USSR and the PRC. In 1984 and 1986, Kim Il Sung made official visits to the USSR, during which new bilateral agreements on friendship, cooperation and trade between the two countries were signed.

After the collapse of the USSR and the coming to power in Russia of Boris Yeltsin, Russian-North Korean contacts greatly weakened. This was manifested, in particular, in the fact that the top Russian leadership did not express official condolences to the DPRK on the occasion of the death of Kim Il Sung in 1994 , although even the leaders of the Western capitalist countries, in particular the USA and France, did so. After the coming to power of Vladimir Putin in 2000 , the first visit of the head of the Russian state to Pyongyang took place. Then, agreements were reached on intensifying political contacts and developing measures to restore economic cooperation. In recent years, intergovernmental agreements have been signed on air services, on cultural cooperation, on the promotion and mutual protection of investment, on avoidance of double taxation, on mutual trips of citizens, on economic and technical cooperation; on cooperation in the forestry sector, in customs affairs, in the fight against crime and law enforcement, in the use of satellite navigation systems.

Russia periodically provides North Korea with humanitarian aid. On August 1, 2004 , a food consignment (34.7 thousand tons of wheat worth $ 10 million) arrived in the DPRK through the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), delivered as part of the first Russian donor contribution to WFP. In 2009, an agreement was reached on the joint reconstruction of the Tumangan-Najin railway. A container terminal is planned to be built at the port of Najin.

DPRK is one of 11 countries that recognized the legality of the annexation of Crimea to Russia ^[2] .

In May 2014, an agreement was signed on the transfer to rubles in settlements between the DPRK and Russia . Also on May 5, an agreement was signed on writing off all Korean debts to Russia. Under the terms of the agreement, a 90% discount is applied to the balance of mutual obligations that has developed in favor of Russia (more than $ 11 billion). The remaining debt - $ 1.09 billion - is repaid over 20 years in 40 equal semi-annual payments by crediting to an interest-free account opened by Vnesheconombank with the DPRK Foreign Trade Bank ^[3] .

On March 22, 2018, a protocol of cooperation in the field of education, science and transport was signed between the DPRK and the Russian Federation ^[4] .

On March 22, 2018, the Minister for Development of the Far East, Alexander Galushka, proposed the DPRK to simplify the visa regime for citizens of the Russian Federation ^[5] .

On April 24, 2019, the DPRK leader arrived in Primorsky Krai . This is the first visit of the current head of the DPRK to Russia ^[6] . The first meeting of President of Russia Vladimir Putin with the leader of the DPRK, Kim Jong-un, took place in Vladivostok on April 25, 2019. They discussed bilateral relations between Russia and the DPRK, issues related to sanctions, relations with the United Nations and the United States, and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The leaders discussed the construction of new power lines , a gas pipeline and an oil pipeline from Russia to the DPRK ^{[7] [8]} .

Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov confirmed Moscow’s readiness to provide humanitarian assistance to the DPRK in connection with the drought in this country ^[9] .

DPRK Nuclear Program

Cooperation in the nuclear field between the Soviet Union and the DPRK began in 1956 . In 1965 , the country launched the first Soviet light water reactor IRT-2000 with a capacity of 2 MW. In the 70s , active development of nuclear weapons began with the direct assistance of the USSR and the PRC .

Since 2003, Russia has been participating in the six-party talks on the DPRK nuclear program.

Official Moscow condemned the North Korean missile launch on December 12, 2012, but still opposes harsh actions against Pyongyang ^[10] .

Mutual Trading

The USSR was the main trading partner of the DPRK - in 1990 it accounted for 53.3% of North Korea’s foreign trade, and the commodity turnover of the two countries amounted to 2.2 billion dollars ^[11] . In 1995, Russian-North Korean trade amounted to $ 83 million ^[11] , and in 2012 - only $ 81 million ^[12] .

In October 2017 , the Russian telecommunications company TransTeleCom , a subsidiary of Russian Railways , conducted an alternative fiber-optic Internet channel on the DPRK along the Friendship Bridge in the DPRK ^{[13] [1]} .

Passenger train number 7/8 passes through the border with the Pyongyang -Tumangan and 651/652 Ussuriysk -Tumangan links. As part of these trains, the direct interchange wagon of the Korean state railways runs the Moscow -Pyongyang message, being re-connected in Tumangan between these trains, as well as two non-stop wagons of the Russian railways with the Moscow-Tumangan message. Passengers of train 651/652 pass customs control at Tumangan station ^[14] .

The Russian Federation plans to build a bridge that will directly connect the territory of the Far East and North Korea ^[15] .

Countries traditionally collaborate in the field of employment. The Russian Federation annually provides 35,000 jobs for the employment of workers from North Korea ^[16] .

• Embassy of the Russian Federation in the DPRK