Russian ministers with visiting President Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang were forced out of the negotiating room by a North Korean official on Wednesday. Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a mistake by entering the front hall. The incident occurred as North Korean state media broadcast Putin’s visit live.
The North Korean official kicked the Russian ministers out of the room
First to enter the room was Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, sitting at the negotiating table, complaining that something was dirty. Later, Deputy Prime Minister Denis Mandurov and Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Saviliev sat next to him. A short time later, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, Defense Minister Andriy Belousov, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko, and the head of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, also entered the room.
“Stop,” a North Korean official can ask off-screen. A representative of the Russian delegation asks: “Then why did we come?” “We have protocol,” the North Korean official replied in Russian. “We should have been warned immediately,” says the Russian representative.
The transmission was interrupted suddenly. When it reopened, it showed an empty conference room where Putin and Kim were holding bilateral talks. Following these talks, Russia and North Korea signed a strategic agreement – including a mutual defense clause – that Putin described as a “breakthrough”.