North Korea met Russian and Chinese delegations after years of isolation due to the pandemic

For the first time since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, North Korea welcomed foreign delegations — Russian and Chinese. They will take part in events for the 70th anniversary of the armistice in the Korean War.

Reuters writes about it.

North Korea plans to show a large-scale military parade with its newest weapons. It will be observed, in particular, by the Minister of Defense of Russia Sergei Shoigu and member of the political bureau of the Communist Party of China Li Hongzhong.

Analysts suggest that North Korea will demonstrate missiles with nuclear warheads, which are banned by the UN Security Council, whose permanent members include Russia and China. Analysts also note that Pyongyang is trying to deepen ties with Beijing and Moscow against the background of confrontation with the West.

• On September 5, 2022, The New York Times, citing declassified US intelligence, reported that Russia is buying artillery shells and short-range missiles from North Korea. Later, the White House also informed that it had information about Russiaʼs plans to purchase millions of ammunition for artillery and short-range missiles from North Korea.
• At the beginning of November 2022, the USA officially accused the DPRK of secretly supplying Russia with artillery shells. Later, the satellite recorded a train on the route to the Russian Federation, which had not functioned for several years.
• At the end of December 2022, the Reuters agency wrote that the Russian PMC "Wagner" received a shipment of weapons from North Korea.
• On March 30, the US Treasury Departmentʼs Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions against Slovakian citizen Ashot Mkrtychev, who facilitated shipments from North Korea to Russia.
• Pyongyang rejects accusations of arms sales to Russia and calls them "baseless rumours". At the same time, Bloomberg writes that Russia has resumed oil supplies to North Korea, which is under sanctions. The USA claims that the deepening of cooperation between the countries involves the supply of weapons from Pyongyang for Russiaʼs war in Ukraine.