Japan has conveyed to Russia its concerns about Moscow-Pyongyang military cooperation in light of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s first visit to North Korea in 24 years earlier this week, according to Japanese and Russian officials.
Masashi Nakagome, director-general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s European Affairs Bureau, conveyed the message when he met with Lyudmila Vorobyova, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Third Asian Department, in Moscow on Friday.
The meeting came after Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a new treaty on strategic partnership between their countries in Pyongyang on Wednesday.
Vorobyova told Nakagome that Japan’s attempts of protest are categorically unacceptable. She explained the Putin administration’s aim of creating a new security structure on the Eurasian continent.
Also during the meeting, Nakagome reiterated Japan’s demand for an immediate halt to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and requested the early resumption of visits to family graves on disputed northwestern Pacific islands by former Japanese residents. The Russian-held islands, called the Northern Territories in Japan, were seized from Japan by the Soviet Union in the closing days of World War II.
In spring 2022, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that negotiations with Japan to conclude a peace treaty to formally end the two countries’ World War II hostilities would be suspended after Tokyo imposed sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. Earlier this month, Putin said the conditions for continuing the negotiations are not met now, blaming Japan for the stalled talks.
Russia announced that the meeting between Nakagome and Vorobyova was held upon request from the Japanese side. The fact that the talks were realized suggests that Russia is willing to maintain a certain level of dialogue with Japan even amid deteriorating bilateral relations.