Russia-North Korea arms and troop trade expands Kim’s leverage

Kim Jong Un toured a new National Defense Revolution Museum on Sunday, walking past long-range weaponry North Korea says is designed to strike the U.S. mainland. He was joined at the museum by his wife, his young daughter and his powerful younger sister Kim Yo Jong, according to North Korean state media’s Tuesday report on the visit.

State media displayed the Hwasong-20 intercontinental ballistic missile among the museum’s exhibits. North Korea says the ICBM is designed to reach the U.S. mainland and carry multiple warheads, but the weapon has not yet been test-launched. During the Sunday tour, Kim vowed the facility would be “further expanded and enriched” and called for North Korea’s arsenal to be developed in a “more strenuous manner,” according to the Tuesday state media report.

State media did not specify the museum’s location or say whether it would be open to the general public. Photos showed a windowless facility. Other displays included Pukkuksong submarine-launched ballistic missiles, a hypersonic short-range missile, a row of smaller cruise missiles, multiple launch rocket systems, attack drones and a battle tank. In state media photos, Kim placed both hands on a battle tank as military officials walked past rows of launchers.

The Wall Street Journal characterized the tour, publicized by North Korean state media on Tuesday, as the latest sign of how Kim views his country’s missile program as crucial to his regime’s survival. Asked by reporters Monday at the White House about the possibility of seeing Kim during his planned trip to attend a regional economic conference next month, Trump said: “I may. That’ll be exciting, won’t it?”

North Korea has rebuffed Washington for years. The two countries have not held formal nuclear talks in roughly seven years. Pyongyang has described its nuclear status as irreversible and has said surrendering its nuclear program would be a deal-breaker for future negotiations. At the United Nations General Assembly in September, the United States, Japan and South Korea issued a joint statement committing to North Korea’s denuclearization. North Korea’s foreign minister responded by calling denuclearization a “daydream” and declaring the country’s nuclear weapons will “remain unchanged forever.”

Pyongyang’s diplomatic posture has been reinforced by its partnership with Russia, including profiting from exporting arms and troops for Russia’s war against Ukraine, empowering Kim to ignore U.S. overtures to resume diplomatic talks. Since late 2023, North Korea has supplied at least 150 ballistic missiles to Russia and accounted for as much as 40 percent of Russia’s ammunition for the war, according to Ukrainian officials. In March, Seoul officials said North Korea had shipped around 33,000 containers of munitions to Russia, including shells and missiles.

Shielded by Russia’s diplomatic backing at the United Nations, Kim has focused on modernizing his military and expanding missile production. North Korea tested a ballistic missile on Monday, part of a recent surge in weapons launches, and has claimed one recent test featured a hypersonic missile. Hypersonic missiles fly at least five times the speed of sound and are designed to be harder to detect, though South Korean and Japanese officials have said North Korea’s hypersonic capabilities are likely exaggerated.

Kim Yo Jong, who attended the museum tour, issued a separate public statement criticizing South Korea and Japan for what she described as their poor missile-detection capabilities. She argued the flight data Seoul and Tokyo publicly released was wrong, adding: “This just serves as a proof of our perfect missile capability.”

Trump met Kim three times during his first term. Since then, the diplomatic channel between Washington and Pyongyang has remained frozen.