N Korea's Kim visits warplane factory at business end of Russia tour

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un peered into the cockpit of Russia’s most advanced fighter jet as he toured an aircraft factory on an extended trip that has raised concerns about banned weapons transfer deals between the two close allies.

Russia’s state media published a video on Friday, showing Kim’s train pulling into a station in the far eastern city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur and Kim’s convoy sweeping out of the station on the way to the city's aircraft factory.

Since entering Russia aboard his armoured train on Tuesday, Kim has met President Vladimir Putin and visited weapons and technology sites, underscoring deepening ties between the two nations locked in separate confrontations with the West.

Russia's Cabinet later released a video showing Kim, on an elevated platform, looking at the cockpit of the Su-57 — Russia’s most sophisticated fighter jet — while listening to its pilot. Kim beamed and clapped his hands after a Su-35 fighter jet landed after a demonstration flight.

According to a Russian Cabinet statement, Kim visited a facility producing Sukhoi SJ-100 passenger planes as well. It said he was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov.

“We have shown one of our leading aircraft plants to the leader of (North Korea),” Manturov said in the statement. “We are seeing the potential for cooperation in the aircraft-making and other industries, which is particularly acute for solving our countries' task of achieving technological sovereignty.”

The summit between Kim and Putin on Wednesday took place at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia’s most important domestic launch centre. The venue is likely linked to North Korean struggles to put into space an operational spy satellite to monitor US and South Korean military movements.

Asked if Russia and North Korea could cooperate in space research, Putin said: “That’s why we have come here. (Kim) shows keen interest in rocket technology. They’re trying to develop space, too.”

Kim is to travel next to Vladivostok to view Russia’s Pacific fleet, a university and other facilities, Putin told Russian media after he met with Kim on Wednesday.

However, the Kremlin said that no agreements have been signed during Kim's ongoing visit to Russia.

"No agreements were signed and there was no plan to sign any," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

“Serious concerns”

Foreign governments and experts speculate Kim will likely supply ammunition to Russia for its war efforts in Ukraine in exchange for receiving advanced weapons or technology from Russia.

Since last year, the US accused North Korea of providing ammunition, artillery shells and rockets to Russia, likely many of them copies of Soviet-era munitions. South Korean officials said North Korean weapons provided to Russia have already been used in Ukraine.

On Thursday evening, the national security advisers of the US, South Korea and Japan talked by phone and expressed “serious concerns” about prospective weapons deals between Russia and North Korea. They warned Russia and North Korea would “pay a clear price” if they go ahead with such deals, according to South Korea’s presidential office.

The White House said the three national security advisers noted that any arms export from North Korea to Russia would directly violate multiple UN Security Council resolutions, including resolutions that Russia, a permanent member of the UN Council, itself voted to adopt.

They reiterated their cooperation toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula as well, according to a White House statement.

After a meeting in Seoul discussing the allies’ nuclear deterrence strategies, US and South Korean officials on Friday stepped up their condemnation of the recent moves by Russia and North Korea.

Sasha Baker, the US acting undersecretary of defence for policy, said that Washington will continue to “try to identify and expose and counter Russian attempts to acquire military equipment, again, to prosecute their illegal war on Ukraine.”

South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Chang Ho-jin said Washington and Seoul, while tightening security cooperation, would ensure that Moscow faces consequences if it proceeds to help advance Pyongyang’s weapons program.