... RIAC Director General, held a virtual meeting with Lee Sok-bae, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Russia
On June 10, 2020, Andrey Kortunov, RIAC Director General, held a virtual meeting with Lee Sok-bae, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Russia.
The discussion focused on the recent suspension of dialog between the Republic of Korea and the DPRK at the initiative of the North Korean side. Other discussion points included possible motives of the North Korean leadership, as well as the potential consequences of this decision for the situation on the peninsula and in North-East Asia as a whole....
... sanctions over the chemical incidents (Syria and Skripal), citing the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991. However, in September and October, the US and the EU have adopted at least three important documents on Russia, including two Executive Orders by the President of the United States (Nos. 13848 and 13849) and the European Council Decision on chemical weapons (2018/1544). The markets have seemed not to even notice these documents. Yet, they may eventually ...
... workers and educates dozens of DPRK’s future leaders. In May 2014, Moscow wrote off North Korean debt to Russia and the two countries signed an agreement hinting at a departure from the US dollar as an accounting currency. All transactions between Russia and the DPRK would now be in Russian rubles. Besides, in 2017 Russian company TransTeleCom
laid
an alternative fiber-optic Internet cable to North Korea.
Increasing cooperation with all states in the region is in the framework of what is deemed as Russia’s ...
US Antipathy to Inter-Korean Rapprochement and Russia’s Role in Conflict Prevention
Thanks to the “New Year’s” initiatives of Kim Jong-un – to which South Korean Moon Jae-in responded for his own reasons – significant progress was made in the inter-Korean dialogue at the highest level ...
... news of his initiative to ensure a safe and successful Olympic Games. Having played the “South Korean card,” Pyongyang used it as a “vent” to reduce pressure in the “Korean cauldron” by eroding the united front of its enemies. China and Russia eagerly supported these initiatives, and South Korea is on now on Pyongyang’s side as well, as it is extremely interested in the dialogue being a success. This means South Korea will be against initiatives to increase the pressure on North Korea ...
... inevitable? Or is it just one of the unlikely scenarios?
Karaganov:
During the late Cold War such threats were virtually nonexistent. Naturally, when the Cold War ended, the level of threat went further down. But the West greedily decided to grab former Russian and Soviet assets. This unleashed a new Cold War between Russia and the West, which we are witnessing now. But it has also started between the United States and China, because the U.S. is tightening its grip on China, trying to prevent it from ...
... instigating a total collapse of the North Korean economy, followed by the breakdown of the political regime in Pyongyang and the state of North Korea as a whole. Such scenario, however, does not sit with North Korea’s neighbours, namely China and Russia, but also South Korea. We are not just talking about abstract humanism here; the manifold consequences of the North Korea collapse will have to be disentangled – not by the United States or even Japan, but by the country’s closest neighbours....
... Studies, with Kent Härstedt, a famous Swedish politician and a diplomat, Special Representative of Sweden on the issue of the situation on the Korean peninsula.
Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs staff and representatives from the Embassy of Sweden to Russia also took part in the meeting. In the course of the meeting the participants discussed the issues of the ongoing Korean peninsula crisis resolution, Russia’s approaches to ensuring security in the Northeast Asia, and specific aspects of relations ...
... emphasise that allied relations between separate states should not inflict damage on the interests of third parties. They are against any military presence of extra-regional forces in Northeast Asia and its build-up under the pretext of counteracting the DPRK’s missile and nuclear programmes.”
In effect, Russia and China explicitly called on Washington to leave Northeast Asia. One could argue that these extremely stern words offered by the two foreign ministries are just diplomatic phrases, which are unlikely to be followed by any serious actions. Then ...
... Marine Corps (which is essentially
half of the entire US Marine Corps
).
The Russian Federation
: the Russian Federation is the legal successor of the USSR. However, the old 1961 Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Aid between the USSR and the DPRK was terminated. The new treaty of February 9, 2000 does not provide missile and nuclear guarantees on Russia’s part.
In fact, current Russian-Korean military relations are not duly formed, and the Russian government’s response in case of a second Korean war is unclear. Currently, a series of agreements in terms of the military have been signed,...