North Korea News Podcast by NK News - North Korea-Russia bridge and Seoul’s call for military readiness against DPRK

Episode Date: April 1, 2025

In this week’s episode, Lead Correspondent Shreyas Reddy discusses an NK News investigation that revealed a minor Russian construction company with links to a notorious Chechen strongman is behind a $100 million vehicle bridge designed to link Russia’s Far East with North Korea. He also covers South Korea’s acting president’s call for heightened military readiness […]

the your T-shirt celebrating DPRK's golden era of aviation in vintage airline chic. Explore the stars with our Nada hoodie, inspired by North Korea's answer to NASA. Or toast to tradition with our Taedonggang beer T-shirt, capturing the essence of North Korea's renowned brew. Each design is a conversation starter. Find yours at shop.nknews.org. Again, that's shop.nknews.org. on the the Hello listeners and welcome to the NK News podcast. I'm your host, Jaco Zwetsut and this episode was recorded in the NK News studio live. Live, not live, it's recorded on Tuesday April the 1st 2025 and I'm

here in the studio with Shreyas Reddy. Shreyas welcome back. Thank you for having me. Sorry about the noise there folks I've just hit my own microphone stand a big no-no in the podcast industry. Shreyas I understand that BTS are signed on to building a bridge between Russia and North Korea is that correct? That's right and it's not an April Fool's Day joke. Essentially though it's not quite the BTS one would most expect when hearing that name. You mean not the Bangtan Sonyeondan, the bulletproof boys? Oh no no I'm afraid not. I'm sure they have perhaps more bridge-building experience or

expertise than the people involved but they're certainly not involved in this on this occasion. Okay, which BTS is it then? So essentially, well, it is perhaps that is something we'll have to come to a little while, but essentially the story is a little known Russian construction company has been awarded the contract to essentially build a $100 million bridge between Russia's Far East and North Korea. And essentially, at first glance, people are going to ask, you know, what does this small

firm have to offer? That's in the Rasson district or area, isn't it? Up there in the Northeast. Yeah, so basically across the Tumen River. So the idea is it will connect the Far East and North Korea by 2026. Wow, $100 million. That seems like a lot of money for a bridge. Yeah. So, I mean, it is a pedigree project. That's the budget is essentially tasked with that extent

and kind of highlights the level of cooperation, the kind of importance the two countries are placing on this relationship at the moment. But back to the construction company itself. So in this case, it is a small Sochi based company, pardon my Russian, unfortunately, unlike my colleague Anton, I do not speak any. But the company's name is Tonel Ustroy,

probably butchering that pronunciation. And it's been tasked with designing and carrying out the construction of the bridge. But further investigation into this company reveals that it has this company, which has just four employees. Honestly, it's had a lot of financial losses as well. But when you dig into it, you find that it has ties to Chechen business mogul Ruslan Baisharov, who is seen as a close confidant of Chechnya's leader Ramzan Kadyrov. And so that's where fundamentally it seems that a lot of this came from.

It seems that as with many things, you might think, oh, where is this going? Is it a case of subterfuge? They just created a fake contract for nothing. Front company to funnel money to Chechnya or something. Or even to North Korea, who knows? But yeah, but actually, yeah, to Chechnya. But no, in this case, it is fundamentally probably more known to a more standard issue, corruption.

So quite likely, there would have been some kickbacks. Now, obviously this is something that we don't know for sure, but that is what some people that NK News spoken to in that region suggest it's more likely just going to be embezzlement and corruption meant to profit, meant to benefit the companies involved. Now this is excellent investigative work by our colleague Anton Sokolin who was on the podcast last week.

Yes, so he's been digging through the documents behind it, analyzing the pictures of the bridge to see how things are going. Oh, has it started? Well, to be honest, so it has started, but it's not due for completion until next year. So still a long way to go. So the company involved, though, this is where the BTS connection comes in. I was wondering, yeah. Yes.

So the name of the Chechen company is BTS Most. BTS Most. Yeah. Okay. So very different BTS. And so that's not the signatory to the contract, but it's behind the company that's the signatory to the contract. Pretty much. And so it seems that in the past BTS most has lent large sums of money to this company,

the construction company. This loss-making construction company of just four people. And the company itself pledged its assets and as collateral to help cover its debts. So fundamentally it is an actual business relationship, but when it comes down to it, it seems at the end, recipient, the end party of this contract is BTSMOST, the Chechen company. Interesting. Now, I mean, you said that this bridge is not slated for completion until next year, but whenever somebody mentions a project of a bridge linking North Korea to another country, I can't help but think of that still incomplete or unused Chinese bridge to nowhere.

And that thing was built years ago and it's still not in use, right? Yeah, as far as we're aware. So is this bridge going to be used? Well, I think there's nobody crossing right now from Russia or China into North Korea as far as I understand. Certainly not at the moment, but at least what is likely is that this bridge will be constructed. So again, we've spoken to people who track how these construction companies operate, and from what we can make out, BTSmost kind of using this company as a front

to cover its own activities. It's quite standard in Russia, but it does not mean that the work doesn't get done. It'll, if anything, involvement of someone as influential as Bysarv and BTS most will likely push things through and make sure things happen. Now that does not actually necessarily mean it'll get used afterwards, of course. That we'll have to see.

And if it does though, it would be a sign of what we've been seeing the last couple of years is increasing trade and communication between Russia and North Korea. Yeah, pretty much. Oh, that actually reminds me on the subject, just going back to what you asked earlier about has construction begun. According to Russia's ambassador to North Korea, Alexander Matsagora, he said last week that the countries haven't actually started full-scale construction yet, but there's been

preparatory work so far. Right, you've got to prepare the ground, you've got to level it and dig holes and things. And they have construction crews and equipment, but it does seem based on satellite imagery that preparatory work has begun, so some land clearing has happened on both sides of the Tumen River. And now that the spring thaws are in, it's a good time to start that because you don't want to be doing that sort of construction work in the winterumen River. And now that the spring thaws are in, it's a good time to start that because you don't want to be doing that sort of construction work in the winter. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Wow. That's

an interesting story. A hundred million dollar bridge to connect the Far East of Russia with the Northeast of North Korea. Let's see where that goes, where that takes us in the coming years. Thank you, Shrez. Okay. What about the next story? Right. Well, other things, perhaps a little closer to home for us here in Seoul. So as many of our listeners will know, last year, South Korean Prime Minister Han Deok-soo, he had been impeached earlier following President Yoon Seok-yul. But he was impeached when he was acting president. Yes, as acting president. So that impeachment was overturned by the Constitutional Court. So effectively he returned and took up the post of acting president again from Finance

Minister Choi Sang-mok. And pretty much soon after that he got back to emphasizing things that had already been expected. I think pretty much in his first meeting back with the National Security Council, he warned of North Korea's escalating threats, including not just missile threats, but cyber threats, all kinds of activities going on. And then a few days later, so on Friday, when it was South Korea's commemorating the anniversary of essentially what was called the West Sea ceremony, West Sea Defense Day ceremony.

So the anniversary of a North Korean attack in targeting South Korea. The 15th anniversary of the sinking of the Cheonan. Yeah. Well, off the coast of Pyeongyangdo. Yeah. And so for the last 10 years, they've been celebrating, they've been commemorating that anniversary as the West Sea Defense Day. So he essentially made it in his remarks again reiterated that South Korea must respond immediately

and overwhelmingly against any North Korean provocations, as he put it, particularly in the waters to the west of the Korean peninsula. Now, it's interesting, I mean, that sounds very much in line with now under impeachment President Yoon Sang-yol. That's the sort of thing that he would say. Han Deok-soo himself as prime minister, and just looking at his political career, he's not a very political figure, right?

He's an economist by training. He's worked for both parties in the past. He worked under President Nour Mouhian, I believe. And he served various governments in various capacities. So he's not the kind to come out and make hot-headed statements about North Korea normally. No. I mean, certainly he's far more moderate than Yoon Seok-yul.

In the following Yoon's impeachment, certainly many in his cabinet, including Handoksu did start taking a more anti-North stance than in the past, but at the same time, it perhaps must be mentioned that it has been nowhere near the level of the Yunso-Gyeol administration. Now partly that might be the fact that they were cognizant

of just how extreme that rhetoric had been and its links to the martial law declaration. Well, that's right. But at the same time, some of them have also seen it as a case of if we want to be able to maintain our control over the government, over this direction, we need to still follow that line as much as we can without going to the same extremes.

So that rhetoric of North Korean threats, we need to be able to deal with them. That has certainly continued. I would say perhaps it's in even Choe Sang-mok, who is even more moderate, if anything, when he took over as acting president after Han Do-kso's impeachment. In his first speech, he took a slightly lesser tone, like not as strong. He went with warning about potential provocations, about possible provocations by North Korea.

At that time, it was more a warning that given the way, in the wake of several resignations and suspensions in the military structure in South Korea as well as the security leadership here, North Korea could take advantage. So he didn't go to the extent of saying North Korea is definitely still continuing with these threats. Handok Sudo on his way back in was very much keen to emphasize that. Did he give any specifics about these provocations coming up? Well, not particularly, but he did warn that there could be provocations in the disputed waters around the Yellow Sea or the West Sea, as we put it.

So this is something that also echoes the UNEA concerns, including some that alleged conspiracy theories and alleged reports that South Korea was trying to even provoke conflict around the Northern Limit Line separating the two Koreas. Now he's not going that far but he's only warning that North Korea could do it. Interesting and we have in about two weeks time on the 16th of April got the birthday of Kim Il-sung the What used to be called the day of the Sun? Not sure if that's on the calendar anymore, but anyway, we'll see if if there's any provocative events around that period

Yes, sir. But first before that This Sunday we've got the Pyongyang marathon first time since 2019. That's right And that's the marathon that's always held a week or a few days before the birthday of Kim Il-sung. So it's all part of that sort of spring celebratory period and friends over there at Koryo Tours are bringing some people in for that first marathon. This time there'll be no tourists. Everyone who goes has to actually run the marathon. Absolutely. So this time I think given a lot of recent uncertainty over the resumption of tourism in North Korea and the abrupt cancellation of tours to Rasson near the Chinese border, we've kind of seen

that there was that uncertainty. Can they fully resume tours to Pyongyang right now? And certainly the authorities that were involved, that were working with Korea tours said they were more on the sports side so they said we from what I understand then the message that came from them was this has to be about the sports tour it's not a general tour tourism package to Pyongyang. It's about 200 from what I understand about 200 runners amateur runners from around the world various different countries are going there to participate. It will be certainly interesting to see if any of them are able to film while running, perhaps with a GoPro or something, while running through the streets of Pyongyang. And we'll be scouring the social media looking for any footage coming out after

the marathon to see what Pyongyang looks like. Yeah, because as you say, it's the first time since 2019. I was there for that marathon. I did not, folks, I'm not to see. Yeah, because as you say, I mean, it's the first time since 2019 I was there for that marathon. I did not, folks, I'm not a runner. I did not run a marathon, but I did walk 10 kilometres through the streets of Pyongyang in 90 minutes. And it was nice to see the city at ground level and you get to have some interactions with people there.

It's a lot more fun than being in a bus on a cool spring day. So that's, wow. Okay. Let's see how that goes. Thanks, Traos, for coming on the show, and we'll see you again very soon. Thank you, Jackal. Looking to stay informed about South Korea's

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To find the best fit for you, just head to signup.careerpro.org and become a member today. Ladies and gentlemen, that brings us to the end of our podcast episode for today. Our thanks go to Brian Betts and Alana Hill for facilitating this episode and to our post-recording producer genius, Gabby Magnuson, who cuts out all the extraneous noises, awkward silences, bodily functions and fixes the audio levels. Thank you and listen again next time.