MOSCOW/SEOUL‚ President Vladimir Putin said Russia would help North Korea launch satellites and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Moscow had his full backing in its “sacred fight” with the West as they met on Wednesday at a cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East.

They would discuss “all issues,” Mr. Putin said when asked if the two leaders would talk about getting supplies from the North to replenish Moscow’s dwindling stock of weapons and ammunition at the summit at the Vostochny Cosmodrome space station.

“That’s why we came here,” Putin said when reporters asked whether Russia would help Kim build satellites. “The leader of the DPRK shows great interest in rocket engineering; they are also trying to develop space.”

DPRK is short for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s formal name.

At the opening of the meeting with Mr. Putin at the gleaming new space station, Mr. Kim said it was North Korea’s unwavering position to further develop its traditional friendship and ties with Russia.

“I find it an honor that the president has prepared an opportunity to meet at a special environment at the launch station which is the heart of your position as a space superpower and given us a deep understanding of the way forward,” Mr. Kim said.

Mr. Kim also told Mr. Putin the Kremlin chief had his full backing in the “sacred fight” Moscow is waging “against the hegemonic forces.”

“We will always support the decisions of President Putin and the Russian leadership… and we will be together in the fight against imperialism,” Mr. Kim told Mr. Putin, speaking via an interpreter.

The summit between the leaders of the two countries, which have become increasingly isolated internationally, is being watched closely by Washington and allies, who suspect they could agree to trade arms and defense technology.

US and South Korean officials have expressed concern that Kim would provide weapons and ammunition to Russia, which has expended vast stocks in more than 18 months of war in Ukraine. Moscow and Pyongyang have denied such intentions.

The choice to meet at Vostochny Cosmodrome — a symbol of Russia’s ambitions as a space power – was notable, as North Korea twice failed to launch reconnaissance satellites in the past four months.

“I am glad to see you,” Mr. Putin said earlier as he welcomed Mr. Kim at Vostochny Cosmodrome, a modern space launch facility in the Amur region of Russia’s Far East. “This is our new cosmodrome.”

Mr. Kim has made it a top priority to launch a spy satellite, while pushing his nuclear-armed country to step up the development of ballistic missiles, drones and attack submarines.

Ahead of his meeting with Mr. Putin, Mr. Kim signed the visitor book in Korean: “The glory to Russia, which gave birth to the first space conquerors, will be immortal.”

Television footage showed Mr. Putin giving Mr. Kim a tour of the facility including the building where the Angara, Russia’s new space launch rocket, is assembled. The 42.7-meter booster launches payloads into low Earth orbit. 

BALLISTIC MISSILES LAUNCHED IN KIM’S ABSENCE
Shortly before the summit, North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles from an area near the capital, Pyongyang, into the sea off its east coast.

It was the first such launch by the North while Mr. Kim was abroad, analysts said, demonstrating an increased level of delegation and more refined control systems for the country’s nuclear and missile programs.

Mr. Kim had made just seven trips abroad in his 12 years in power, all in 2018 and 2019. He also briefly stepped across the inter-Korean border twice.

After the summit, Mr. Putin and Mr. Kim had lunch on crab dumplings, sturgeon and beef with Russian wine, where Mr. Kim proposed a toast to Putin’s health and said he was confident the Russian army and people would triumph against “evil”.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the two countries cooperate in “sensitive” areas, including military cooperation but it is not targeted at other countries, and they should not be concerned about Russia’s ties with North Korea.

Mr. Kim arrived in Russia by private train on Tuesday with top defence industry and military aides and said his visit highlighted the “strategic importance” of the two countries’ ties, the North’s state news agency KCNA reported on Wednesday.

The make-up of Kim’s delegation, with the notable presence of Munitions Industry Department Director Jo Chun Ryong, suggested an agenda heavy on defense industry cooperation, analysts said.

Mr. Kim could offer artillery rounds from North Korea’s large stockpile, which could replenish Russia’s capabilities in the short term, but questions about the ammunition’s quality may limit the overall impact, military analysts said.

South Korea and the United States have warned such a deal would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions, which Russia as a permanent member of the council voted to approve.

North Korea is one of the few countries to have openly supported Russia over the Ukraine conflict, and Putin pledged last week to “expand bilateral ties in all respects in a planned way by pooling efforts.” — Reuters

THE US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention director on Tuesday signed off on broad use of updated COVID-19 vaccines approved by the government — covering ages 6 months and up — as the country prepares to start a vaccination campaign within days.

The final recommendation from director Mandy Cohen comes after a panel of advisers to the agency voted 13-1 to recommend the shots made by Pfizer and partner BioNTech as well as Moderna.

They did not choose to target the shots at specific high-risk populations as some experts have suggested, and other countries have recommended. The shots are part of a push by public health officials to align the next COVID vaccines more closely with the actual circulating variant of the virus, much as annual flu shots are designed.

The recommendation differs from those in most European countries that have issued guidance. This month, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said vaccination programs in European Union countries should prioritize people aged 60 and older as well as other vulnerable groups.

In Germany, booster shots have been targeted to these groups, while the British government’s vaccine committee said only adults 65 and older and some other categories will be offered the shot as they are the most likely to benefit.

US CDC panel members said simply recommending the vaccine for everybody outweighed complications created by tailoring recommendations more precisely.

“I’m strongly in favor of a universal recommendation,” panel member and professor at Harvard Medical School Dr. Camille Kotton said. “Let’s do away with COVID-19 as best we can by prevention of disease through vaccines.”

The CDC advisers met a day after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved updated COVID vaccines made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech as well as by Moderna for people ages 12 and above, and authorized them for emergency use in children ages 6 months through 11 years.

Pfizer and Moderna have said shots can roll out in coming days and the CDC said they will be available later this week.

Novavax’s protein-based shot is still under review by the FDA and a recommendation for the same is expected to be in line with the FDA’s decision.

AN EVER-EVOLVING VIRUS
Formulating vaccines to target the latest variants of the ever-evolving coronavirus has been a challenge for public health officials globally since the pandemic began in 2020, with some variants more worrisome than others. Variants circulating the most widely in the United States now are subvariants of what is called the XBB lineage of the virus.

The updated shots are monovalent, or single-target vaccines, aimed at what is called the XBB.1.5 variant, as requested by the FDA.

“I do think that a broad boosting strategy makes sense,” said Caitlin Rivers, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore, adding that while the virus was not causing as many hospitalizations and deaths as before, it is still circulating.

Ms. Rivers added she was curious to hear the committee’s recommendation for young men, “because we do see that, in rare cases, young men can develop myocarditis or related effects,” referring to a condition in which inflammation develops in the middle muscular layer of the heart wall.

The rate of myocarditis after receiving booster doses in adolescent and young adult males are lower than that observed after the primary series of shots, CDC official Megan Wallace said at the meeting.

She said the data is limited because of the fewer number of booster doses given out and added that longer intervals between updated doses may also have an impact on the myocarditis rates in this population.

COVID infections and hospitalizations have been rising in the United States, Europe and Asia but remain well below previous peaks. Deaths are relatively low in the United States — reported at around 2,000 last month — though the country has experienced 1.1 million COVID deaths since the outset of the pandemic. — Reuters