Kim Jong-sik:ik, the first vice department director of the ruling Workers' Party, was seen attending the opening ceremony of Army 2024, an international military-technical forum, on Monday (local time), Radio Free Asia, a U.S. media outlet, reported, citing Russian news media. Kim, known as a key figure in North Korea's ballistic missile development, has accompanied leader Kim Jong-un on inspections of missile launches. He was awarded the title of "hero of the republic" for his contribution to North Korea's development of a long-range rocket in 2012. The North's official has been sanctioned by U.N. Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2397, adopted in 2017 in the wake of North Korea's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile. South Korea, the United States and the European Union have also added him to a list of their unilateral sanctions. U.N. members should ban the entry of an official sanctioned by UNSC resolutions, but Russia appears to have invited a North Korean delegation to the arms forum amid deepening ties between the two nations. North Korea and Russia have been bolstering military ties, with the North being accused of supplying Russia with ammunition for use in Moscow's war in Ukraine in exchange for aid and suspected technological assistance for its space program. The North's leader Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin held summit talks in Pyongyang in June and signed a new partnership treaty that includes a mutual defense clause. Source: Yonhap News Agency