Putin came to North Korea with a high profile. At 3:00 a.m., the DPRK welcomed him at the airport. Korean women sent flowers to welcome him
This is the picture of Putin's first visit to North Korea 24 years ago. When Putin was just elected as the president of Russia, he wanted to stabilize the Far East and save the economy after the collapse of the Soviet Union, so he visited North Korea
Can you wonder why Putin has never been to North Korea for 24 years since Russia and North Korea are neighbors?
In fact, the answer is very simple. It's just a bad relationship. Let me talk about it with you a little
In the 1950s and 1960s, there were four major factions in North Korea,
First, the leading group led by Kim Il
Second, the Yan'an faction. The Yan'an faction is the Korean people who participated in the War of Resistance against Japan and the civil war. After the founding of New China, they went to Korea. Most of them are military leading cadres in Korea
Third, the Moscow faction. This is the Korean from the Soviet Union
Fourth, the southerners, the armed forces from South Korea
These four factions constitute the main force in Korea. During the Korean War, they were united because they wanted to jointly fight against the United States, but when the war stopped, they began internal cleansing
Many powerful figures from China's Yan'an faction were either dismissed, demoted or arrested because most of them were military leading cadres with important positions
Ivanovic Xu Jiayi (middle) took a group photo with Kim Il Sung in his early years
In Moscow Pairi, the prickly "Xu Jiayi", also known as Alexei Ivanovich Xu Jiayi, had a serious quarrel with Kim Il Sung and was expelled from the organization
The Soviet Union intervened forcefully because Xu Jiayi was an important force of the Soviet Union in North Korea. The opening of Xu Jiayi meant that the Soviet Union's control over North Korea was weakened
Finally, under the pressure of the Soviet Union, North Korea gave Big Brother a face and kept Xu Jiayi's position as Deputy Prime Minister
In 1953, Ivanovic Xu Jiayi committed suicide
Leader of the Southern School (Li Chengye)
The southerners are the most miserable because they are from South Korea. A large number of people, led by Lee Seung Yee, have all been tried for American spy and sabotage of revolutionary forces
Most of these southern figures who committed espionage were sentenced to death
In 1956, Khrushchev criticized Stalin and keenly observed that North Korea, which was in great trouble within the Soviet Union, began to further purge the "Moscow faction" without any consideration
At the meeting, Kim Il Sung said that since those cadres who returned from the Soviet Union are Korean nationals, why are they still unwilling to give up their Soviet nationality? What is the nature of this problem?
The people below immediately shouted that they should kick these traitors out and let them go
Since then, the Soviet faction has been completely excluded from the internal power system of North Korea
This of course caused Khrushchev's dissatisfaction. The DPRK Soviet relations began to deteriorate, and Moscow continued to reduce its aid to the DPRK
In the 1970-1980s, the Sino Soviet relations deteriorated, Sino US relations warmed up, Kissinger paid a secret visit to China, and China and the United States established diplomatic relations
At this time, North Korea was also smart enough not to choose sides and played balanced diplomacy. I didn't offend either of the two big brothers of China and the Soviet Union. I watched the fight between China and the Soviet Union so that he could get more assistance from it, which made China and the Soviet Union very dissatisfied
In the 1980-1990s, the Soviet mourner Mikhail Gorbachev came to power. Once Gorbachev came to power, he further reduced his aid to North Korea, and then began negotiations with South Korea
Gorbachev hoped to reconcile with South Korea, which greatly angered North Korea and made it more and more isolated internationally
After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Yeltsin took control of Russia. Yeltsin took an attitude towards North Korea, "What kind of attitude are you?"
Yeltsin's overall inclination to the West
Yeltsin visited the United States. A big joke made Clinton laugh and cry. I'm afraid Clinton has never heard such a big joke in his life
Being so close to the United States determined that Russia's attitude towards North Korea would only be worse, and Yeltsin was not interested in all "helping North Korea"
Russia has established diplomatic relations with South Korea in a higher profile, hoping that South Korea will invest in Russia to improve the Russian economy. What's more, Yeltsin directly vetoed the military alliance with North Korea
At this time, the relationship between North Korea and Russia was extremely poor
Later, Yeltsin asked Putin to come to power. After Putin came to power, he thought that Russia North Korea relations were too bad, which was not good. There was no need to make such a bad situation with North Korea, not to mention that North Korea was beneficial to Russia's economic development
So Putin, who just took office, decided to go to North Korea once to bring the bilateral relations back to the normal level
This was Putin's first visit to the DPRK, and the Treaty of Good Neighbourliness and Friendship between Russia and the DPRK was officially signed
In Putin's eyes at that time, his first task was to recover the Russian economy that collapsed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and economic recovery was the absolute first task
Putin put forward the plan of developing the east, hoping to promote economic development by developing the vast east of Russia. But the eastern region of Russia directly faces the US Japan South Korea military alliance, which is a big problem
So Putin formulated several principles:
First, the DPRK must not develop nuclear weapons, and the peninsula must be denuclearized
If North Korea develops nuclear weapons, it will greatly aggravate the tension on the peninsula, and then there will be an arms race, which is detrimental to Russia's economic development
In addition, Russia has pointed out at internal meetings more than once that Russia faces terrorist threats, such as Chechens. If North Korea has nuclear technology, the nuclear weapons will risk falling into the hands of Chechen terrorists, which will aggravate Russia's insecurity
So Russia's position for North Korea is basically that it is an obedient and controllable country. North Korea cannot be overthrown by the United States, and North Korea cannot possess nuclear weapons
Some people said that since Russia wants to develop the Far East so much, why not cooperate with China?
Because a large area of land in the Far East belongs to China, he also came to China for cooperation. Isn't he looking for smoking?
The fact is that for a long time in the past, Russia guarded against China, including Chinese investment and development in the Far East
Therefore, Russia does not welcome the Chinese to develop in the Far East. Russia hopes that after the stability of the peninsula, the rich Koreans and Japanese will develop in the Far East
But soon after Putin visited North Korea in 2000, North Korea began to engage in nuclear weapons, which seriously stepped on Putin's red line
In October 2002, the second round of the Korean nuclear crisis broke out, and the Six Party Talks came on stage. Russia's attitude was very clear, and it must ensure the denuclearization of the peninsula
But nuclear weapons are a solid guarantee for the stability of the Korean regime. North Korea will certainly develop nuclear weapons, which has irreconcilable contradictions with Russia
Russia wants the stability of the peninsula and the development of the Far East economy
North Korea wants political stability and nuclear missiles
In October 2006, North Korea conducted another nuclear test explosion, Putin was furious, and Russia also strongly condemned North Korea, asking it to immediately return to the "nuclear non-proliferation framework"
North Korea turns a deaf ear
At the UN Security Council, further sanctions against North Korea are on the agenda, and Russia supports
In January 2013, the DPRK conducted its third nuclear test explosion and suspended the denuclearization negotiations on the peninsula indefinitely
On the day of the nuclear test explosion, Russian government spokesman Lukasevich publicly said that it is unacceptable for North Korea to want to become a "nuclear power"
Then he said: "As a permanent member of the Security Council, Russia categorically does not accept North Korea's defiance of the United Nations resolutions, the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and the semi missile security system."
It can be seen that after the third nuclear test of North Korea, the Russian language is very heavy
Because the continuous nuclear test explosions of North Korea have basically cut off the "Russian Great Far East Economic Plan", North Korea has exploded there like a bomb, which investor dares to go to the Far East?
In retrospect, we know that from the Soviet Union to Russia, the relationship with North Korea has been on a downward slope, but not upward
During Putin's period, from the beginning, he hoped to stabilize North Korea to develop the Great Far East, to the time when North Korea once, twice and three times conducted nuclear test explosions, which broke the Great Far East Plan, Russia also supported increasing sanctions against North Korea at the United Nations many times
That's why Putin didn't go to North Korea for 24 years
Then why did Putin go now?
The answer is very simple. In fact, it's just "looking for help"
The West will do everything in its power to support Ukraine. Putin must also do everything in his power to "find friends" to support North Korea, Vietnam, India, and all friends who can help Russia now, Putin must go to
No matter how bad or false the relationship between the two sides was in the past, now as long as they can help, they are Russian friends
North Korea will provide assistance to Russia in terms of weapons and ammunition, and Russia will also provide North Korea with the missile technology cooperation it has always dreamed of
With Russia's missile technical assistance, North Korea's missiles can hit farther, more steadily, and more accurately
In March 2024, at the United Nations, Russia vetoed the United Nations Monitoring Group's resolution on the monitoring of sanctions against North Korea
In the past, North Korea was sanctioned for its nuclear weapons. A special United Nations team was responsible for monitoring the implementation of sanctions and ensuring the implementation of sanctions
Now, Russia's rejection of the operation of the sanctions monitoring group is tantamount to seriously weakening the implementation of sanctions against North Korea
An unsupervised sanction is equivalent to no sanction, which is conducive to more transactions between Russia and North Korea
It's ironic to think that in the past, Putin repeatedly condemned North Korea, accused North Korea and sanctioned North Korea for the "Great Far East Plan", but today he not only wants North Korea to veto the operation of the United Nations monitoring group, but also to provide more stable missile technology for North Korea
In the past 20 years, Putin's "Great Far East Plan" has failed
In the next 20 years, Putin's "chaotic Far East plan" began
The more chaotic the Far East and the Korean Peninsula will be in the future, the more favorable it will be for Russia. A crisis and chaos of the Korean Peninsula will greatly curb the power of the United States
Once the United States decentralizes its forces to deal with the Far East crisis, the pressure of Russia on the front battlefield in Ukraine will be reduced
But is it in China's interest to have a crisis, unrest and chaos on the Korean Peninsula? This is a question worthy of our deep consideration
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