North Korea s Kim oversees test fire of anti aircraft missile system

SEOUL - North Korea said on March 21 it had test-fired a new weapons system that would boost its combat readiness, as Russia’s security chief arrived in Pyongyang for talks with leader Kim Jong Un.

Traditional allies Russia and North Korea have drawn closer since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, with Seoul accusing Mr Kim of sending thousands of troops and container loads of weapons to help Moscow fight Kyiv.

Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang has officially confirmed the troop deployment, but the two countries in 2024 signed a sweeping military deal, including a mutual defence clause, when Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare visit to the nuclear-armed North.

Moscow’s top security official Sergei Shoigu has arrived in North Korea for a visit, Russian news agency Tass reported on March 21, the latest in a recent series of high-level exchanges between North Korea and Russia.

Mr Shoigu is scheduled to meet Mr Kim and other North Korean officials, both Tass and RIA Novosti reported.

Mr Kim oversaw the test-fire of the country’s latest anti-aircraft missile system, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on March 21, without specifying when the test happened.

Mr Kim said it showed North Korea’s army would be “equipped with another major defence weapon system with laudable combat performance”, KCNA said.

The announcement came a day after South Korea wrapped up a major annual joint military exercise with the US, known as Freedom Shield, which Pyongyang separately denounced on March 21 as “a rehearsal of war of aggression”.

The North – which attacked its neighbour in 1950, triggering the Korean War – has long been infuriated by any military exercises between the US and the South.

Seoul said last week the North had fired “multiple unidentified ballistic missiles” after it began the joint drills, which involve