The North Korean government issued a rare invitation for two of its only allies to visit.
Dictator Kim Jong Un’s regime invited Russia and China to send delegations to the hermit kingdom ahead of Korean War Armistice Day celebrations.
The Russian delegation will be led by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu with hopes of “developing the traditional DPRK-Russia friendly relations in keeping with the demand of the times,” according to state media outlet Korean Central News Agency.
STATE DEPARTMENT SAYS ‘NO NEW COMMUNICATIONS’ BETWEEN US, NORTH KOREA OVER SOLDIER TRAVIS KING
Kim Jong Un attends a meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea in Pyongyang, North Korea. (KCNA via Reuters)
The Chinese delegation will be led by Political Bureau Central Committee member Li Hongzhong, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“China and the DPRK are friendly neighbors linked by mountains and rivers. Our two parties and the two countries have had a good tradition of friendly exchanges. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the armistice of the Korean War,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning. “Having a high-level Chinese delegation visit the DPRK and mark the occasion shows the high importance both sides attach to our bilateral ties.”
“We believe this visit will contribute to the sound and stable growth of bilateral relations, to regional peace and stability, and to creating conditions for the political settlement of the Korean Peninsula issues,” she added.
NORTH KOREA FIRES 2 MISSILES AMID US NUCLEAR SUB IN SOUTH KOREA, SOLDIER CROSSING DMZ
Spokesperson Mao Ning speaks during a daily briefing at China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
This year, Koreans will be celebrating the 70th anniversary of the armistice, which was reached on July 27, 1953.
The trilateral meeting and celebrations are scheduled amid ongoing silence from North Korean officials regarding a U.S. citizen who has illicitly crossed the nation’s borders.
The U.S. State Department is now saying there have been “no new communications” with North Korea regarding captured American soldier Travis King, who officials say ran over the border last week during a guided tour of the DMZ.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu meets with officers in Moscow. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
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State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller made the remark after the U.N. Command peacekeeping force, according to The Associated Press, said Monday that it has started “a conversation” with North Korea about King.
“I saw the reports about contact between the U.N. Command and North Korea. It is my understanding that there have been no new communications since last week – communications that happened in the early days,” Miller said Monday during a State Department briefing.
A U.S. Forces Korea spokesperson said King was on a joint security area orientation tour last Tuesday when he “willfully and without authorization crossed the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).”
