Russian defense minister visits North Korea for talks with military and political leaders

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov arrived in North Korea on Friday for talks with North Korean military and political leaders as the countries deepen their cooperation over Russia’s war in Ukraine.

In announcing the visit, Russia’s Defense Ministry didn’t say whom Belousov would meet or the purpose of the talks. North Korean state media didn’t immediately confirm the visit.

Belousov, a former economist, replaced Sergei Shoigu as defense minister in May after Russian President Vladimir Putin started a fifth term in power.

Photos released by the Defense Ministry showed Belousov walking alongside North Korean Defense Minister No Kwang Chol on a red carpet at a Pyongyang airport. North Korean military officials were seen clapping under a banner that read, “Complete support and solidarity with the fighting Russian army and people.”

Belousov noted after his arrival that military cooperation between the countries is expanding. He applauded a strategic partnership agreement signed by Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un following their June meeting in Pyongyang, which he said is aimed at reducing tensions by maintaining a “balance of power” in the region and lowering the risk of war, including with nuclear weapons.

The June meeting demonstrated the “highest level of mutual trust” between the leaders, Belousov said, and “also the mutual desire of our countries to further expand mutually beneficial cooperation in a complex international environment.”

North Korean Defense Minister No also praised the expanding cooperation between the countries’ militaries and reiterated North Korea’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, describing it as a “just struggle to protect the country’s sovereign rights and security interests.”

The visit comes days after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol met with a Ukrainian delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov in the South Korean capital, Seoul, and called for the two countries to formulate countermeasures in response to North Korea’s dispatch of thousands of troops to Russia to help its fight against Ukraine.

Kim in recent months has prioritized relations with Russia as he tries to break out of isolation and strengthen his international footing, embracing the idea of a “new Cold War.”

The United States and its allies have said North Korea has sent more than 10,000 soldiers to Russia in recent weeks and that some of those troops were engaging in combat.

North Korea has also been accused of supplying artillery systems, missiles and other military equipment to Russia that may help Putin further extend an almost three-year war. There are also concerns in Seoul that North Korea, in exchange for its troops and arms supplies, could receive Russian technology transfers that could improve its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

“The Russian defense minister doesn’t visit North Korea just to celebrate bilateral ties,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. “This visit indicates Putin and Kim’s military cooperation in violation of international law is about to increase further.”

Yoon’s national security adviser, Shin Wonsik, said in a TV interview last week that Seoul believes that Russia has provided air defense missile systems to North Korea in exchange for sending its troops.

Shin said Russia also appears to have given economic assistance to North Korea and various military technologies, including those needed for the North’s efforts to build a reliable space-based surveillance system, which Kim has stressed is crucial for enhancing the threat of nuclear-capable missiles targeting South Korea. Shin didn’t say whether Russia has already transferred sensitive nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technologies to North Korea.

Yoon’s office hasn’t said whether the two governments discussed the possibility of South Korea supplying weapons to Ukraine in his talks with Umerov.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, South Korea has joined U.S.-led sanctions against Moscow and provided humanitarian and financial support to Kyiv. But it has avoided directly supplying arms, citing a longstanding policy of not giving lethal weapons to countries actively engaged in conflicts.

Yoon has said his government will take phased countermeasures, linking the level of its response to the degree of Russian-North Korean cooperation.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Belousov will meet with Kim, the North Korean leader. Last year, Kim hosted a Russian delegation led by then-Defense Minister Shoigu and gave him a personal tour of a North Korean arms exhibition, in what outside critics likened to a sales pitch.

That event came weeks before Kim traveled to Russia for talks with Putin which sped up military cooperation between the countries. During another meeting in Pyongyang in June this year, Kim and Putin signed a pact stipulating mutual military assistance if either country is attacked, in what was considered the two countries’ biggest defense deal since the end of the Cold War.

The Russian report about Belousov’s visit came as South Korea scrambled fighter jets to repel six Russian and five Chinese warplanes that temporarily entered the country’s air defense identification zone around its eastern and southern seas, according to the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. It said the Russian and Chinese planes did not breach South Korea’s territorial airspace.

In this photo taken from a video released by Russian Defense Ministry press service, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, second left, speaks with North Korean Defense Minister No Kwang Chol, third right, during their meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

In this photo taken from a video released by Russian Defense Ministry press service, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, left, speaks with North Korean Defense Minister No Kwang Chol, unseen, during their meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

In this photo released by Russian Defense Ministry press service, North Korean Defense Minister No Kwang Chol, left, and Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, right, shake hands during their meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (Vadim Savitsky, Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

In this photo released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, second left, speaks with North Korean Defense Minister No Kwang Chol, second right, during their meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (Vadim Savitsky, Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

In this photo taken from a video released by Russian Defense Ministry press service, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, right on the red carpet, is welcomed by North Korean Defense Minister No Kwang Chol, left on the red carpet, upon his arrival at Pyongyang International Airport outside of Pyongyang, North Korea Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (Russian Defense Press Service via AP)

In this photo taken from a video released by Russian Defense Ministry press service, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, left, is welcomed by North Korean Defense Minister No Kwang Chol upon his arrival at Pyongyang International Airport outside of Pyongyang, North Korea Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (Russian Defense Press Service via AP)

HONG KONG (AP) — Global shares mostly fell on Friday after U.S. markets were closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday.

France’s CAC 40 was nearly unchanged at 7,178.37 in early trading, while Germany’s DAX edged down 0.1% to 19,407.50. Britain’s FTSE 100 declined less than 0.1% to 8,279.02. Investors were awaiting preliminary inflation data for November for the region using the euro, which may influence the European Central Bank’s future interest rate decisions.

The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were both 0.3% higher. U.S. markets will reopen for a half day on Friday.

In Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.4% to 38,208.03 after the government reported that inflation in Tokyo, considered an indicator for national trends, was 2.6% in November, up from 1.8% last month mainly due to a surge in fresh food prices. Core inflation, which excludes fresh food prices, rose modestly to 2.2% year-on-year from 1.8% in October.

Higher inflation tends to reinforce expectations that the Bank of Japan will push ahead with more increases in its benchmark lending rate. That, in turn, pushes up the value of the Japanese yen, which was trading at 150.02 to the U.S. dollar early Friday. A week earlier it was trading above 155 yen per dollar.

The central bank's current policy rate is 0.25%. It only ended a long spell of negative rates in March on the presumption that Japan had largely achieved its 2% inflation target.

South Korea’s Kospi lost 2% to 2,455.91 after the central bank cut its benchmark interest rate on Thursday to relieve pressure on its slowing economy. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.1% lower to 8,436.20.

Chinese markets advanced. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 0.3% to 19,423.61. Meanwhile, the Shanghai Composite index surged 0.9% to 3,326.46. Gains in retailers' stocks drove market gains after a two-day meeting in Beijing focused on promoting consumption ended on Thursday. Shares of Yonghui Superstore, China’s fifth-largest hypermarket chain operator, surged by over 10%.

Investors also are looking ahead to a major economic planning meeting that is usually held in December.

The holiday Thursday brought a respite in news on President-elect Donald Trump's plans for after he takes office, after markets were rocked earlier in the week by his announcement that he plans to order immediate sharp tariff hikes on imports from Canada, Mexico and China.

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 fell 0.4% and the Dow fell 0.3%. The Nasdaq composite, which is heavily weighted with technology stocks, fell 0.6%.

In other dealings Friday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 16 cents to $68.56 per barrel, while Brent crude, the international standard, fell 37 cents to $72.41 per barrel.

The euro rose to $1.0580 from $1.0554.

A sign marking the intersection of Wall Street and South Street is shown in New York's Financial District on Tuesday, Nov. 26 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

A person looks at an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Friday, Nov. 29, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei, New York Dows and Shanhai indexes at a securities firm Friday, Nov. 29, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Friday, Nov. 29, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)