Putin arrives in North Korea

Western leaders will be watching warily as Vladimir Putin landed in North Korea this evening for the first time in 24 years, to solidify his budding bromance with Kim Jong Un, supreme leader of the world’s most isolated state.

A warm welcome awaits the Russian leader in the capital. The streets of city Pyongyang are lined with Russian flags and portraits of Putin while a banner outside the airport greets “comrade Vladimir”, boasting that “the friendship between North Korea and Russia is eternal.”

This is the second meeting between the two leaders in less than a year. Back in September, the reclusive and paranoid North Korean dictator embarked on his first foreign trip in four years, travelling 20 hours on his bulletproof train to visit Putin in Russia’s far east. 

In February, relations grew cosier still thanks to a flashy diplomatic gift: Putin delivered a luxury, Russian-made limousine to his new pal in Pyongyang.

The two men are certainly keen to make their strengthened alliance known to the rest of the world. But just how worried should those in the west be that leaders of two of the most hostile states are clubbing together? 

While a shared enemy – in the form of Washington – has brought these heavily sanctioned countries closer, the relationship between them is a transactional one. 

For Putin, the crucial concern is artillery to sustain his war machine in Ukraine. North Korea has plenty of the right kind of ammunition – compatible with Soviet-era weapons – and, unlike most countries, is willing to sell it to Russia. Over the past year, Pyongyang is suspected to have shipped several million shells and dozens of ballistic missiles to Moscow. 

In return, Moscow is thought to be sending cash and humanitarian aid to sanction-starved North Korea to help alleviate the pariah state’s food shortages.

Yet Kim is almost certainly not just after money; technological help from the Kremlin could prove even more valuable.

During their last tete-a-tete in eastern Russia, Putin vowed to help North Korea’s satellite development. And most alarming to the west is the prospect that Pyongyang – which is still struggling to master key strategic weapons, such as a nuclear-armed submarine – will persuade Moscow to hand over advanced weapons technology or knowledge, that would allow North Korea to make breakthroughs in its own nuclear weapons programme.

Yuri Ushakov, the Kremlin’s policy adviser, has stated that Putin will use his visit to sign a “strategic partnership treaty” with Kim, that will “outline prospects for further cooperation”.

However, most defence analysts remain sceptical that Russia would ever agree to hand over large amounts of military technology – or expertise in nuclear weapons – to North Korea. 

Enemy’s enemy aside, the friendship may not run that deep.

Certainly as long as the war in Ukraine drags on, having Pyongyang on side is a help for Moscow. But even Putin probably knows that Kim is no trustworthy long-term ally. 

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