SEOUL – South Korea said Thursday it was “closely watching” preparations by Russian President Vladimir Putin for an expected visit to its arch-foe North Korea.
“The government is closely watching President Putin’s preparations for his visit to North Korea,” South Korea’s foreign ministry said.
Earlier Thursday, a senior official at the South Korean president’s office said Putin was expected to visit North Korea “in a few days.”
North Korea and Russia are both under heavy sanctions, and have deepened ties since the latter invaded Ukraine in 2022. Pyongyang has been accused of providing arms to Russia for its war in Ukraine.
Neither side has confirmed the itinerary of Putin’s visit. The Kremlin has told Russian state-run media last month that a visit was “being prepared.”
Meanwhile, Foreign ministers from eight EU countries have sent a letter to the bloc’s foreign policy chief, obtained by AFP on Thursday, asking him to curb Russian diplomats’ movement in the Schengen area.
They claim the free movement of Russian diplomatic passport holders in the visa-free Schengen area facilitates “malign activities”, amid concerns Moscow is stepping up its attempts to sow divisions within the EU.
“We believe the EU should… restrict the movement of members of Russian diplomatic missions and their family members to territory of a state of their accreditation only,” the eight ministers said.
The letter to the foreign policy chief is signed by the Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish and Romanian ministers and dated June 11.
The proposed measure “will significantly narrow operational space for Russian agents,” they added.
EU countries have already dramatically reduced the number of Russian diplomats on their soil since the Russian invasion of Ukraine started in February 2022.
The ministers said that “intelligence, propaganda or even preparation of sabotage acts are the main workload for a large number of Russian ‘diplomats’ in the EU”.
The Czech Republic and Poland have recently arrested arson suspects, claiming their crimes had been incited by Russia.
Lithuania in turn is grappling with Russia’s drive to unilaterally expand its maritime border at its expense.