Talking to Press TV (Iran) about Sergei Shoigu’s ongoing visit to North Korea
It was a pleasure earlier this afternoon to be given the opportunity by Press TV (Iran) to put in context one of the most important bits of world news from yesterday: the ongoing visit to North Korea of an RF Ministry of Defense delegation headed by Minister Shoigu.
My colleague in Germany informs me that this visit received no mention in German media today. It was skipped entirely by the Financial Times and got only a few words in The New York Times. To be sure, both Reuters and Aljazeera online ran brief stories about it, but their texts were nearly identical and, judging by the spin, they were using a press release on the subject sent to them by the U.S. State Department.
I say that because their news stories stressed that the visit marks a departure from North Korea’s closure to the world to prevent transmission of Covid from abroad.
However, that is the least significant aspect of the Russian visit, which comes at the same time as a visiting delegation from the People’s Republic of China, all for the purpose of participating in the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended the Korean War. Both Russia and China had provided essential support to the North Korean side in that war.
The Chinese are understandably shy about publicly restoring full-scale relations with North Korea lest they come in for punishing sanctions from the United States. However, Russia has nothing to lose and the visit was openly described by the Russian Foreign Ministry as seeking to raise the level of military and general cooperation.
Yes, no doubt there will be talks about Russian purchases of various weapons systems from North Korea that can be useful in pursuing the war in Ukraine. Among these systems identified by Russian analysts is a world-class air defense missile with 300 km range. But the real significance of the talks lies elsewhere: in adding North Korea to the strategic partnership that Russia already has with China and Iran for mutual security.
In effect what we are witnessing is the roll-out of what U.S. President George W. Bush called an ‘axis of evil,’ when at the time such active defense partnerships were still a remote possibility, not a reality. Today this ‘axis’ might be better described as a world saving coalition that has more military muscle than NATO and the countries that NATO is now cultivating in East Asia, namely Japan and South Korea, as well as in the South Pacific, namely Australia all put together. This very balance of power is the best protection against outbreak of a new world war.
See the 3 minute interview: www.urmedium.net/c/presstv/125428
©Gilbert Doctorow, 2023