Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un showed off their closer ties by going for a drive in a Russian-made Aurus limousine shortly after signing a new comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.
In a meticulously orchestrated public relations stunt, Putin drove first, with Kim Jong Un, smiling broadly, in the passenger seat, and after Putin stopped the car, a white-gloved aide opened the car door so the two could swap seats.
Robert Dover, professor of intelligence and national security at Britain’s University of Hull, told Al Jazeera that photos of the visit seemed to show there was “real empathy” between Kim and Putin.
The two countries’ latest agreements, which include a mutual defense pact, show how relations have progressed since Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Moscow, once a veto-holder on the U.N. Security Council and seeking to work with the international community to curb North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons programs, now appears to be giving unequivocal support to the world’s most isolated regime.
After North Korea released details of the agreement, Eugene Loomer, a senior fellow and director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Trade, said the agreement was “not surprising.”
“Embracing a North Korean dictator is a logical extension of Putin’s actions after he launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine. He staked his entire presidency on victory. When victory proved elusive, he went all out, determined to win even if it meant destroying the country, severing vital diplomatic, security and trade ties with the West, and weaponizing everything available to him.”
This latest agreement replaces the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Good-Neighborliness that the two countries signed in 2000, shortly after Putin first became president and North Korea was under the rule of Kim Jong-un’s father, Kim Jong-il.
But its contents are closer to the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance signed in 1961, when Russia was the leading power in the now-disintegrating Soviet Union.
In addition to the mutual defense agreement, which has attracted the most attention, the agreement also includes cooperation in health care, medical education and science, as well as plans for a road bridge across the Tumen River.
North Korean state media released what it said was the full text, in which Kim glowingly described the agreement as an “alliance” and declared Russia North Korea’s “most sincere friend and ally.”
Putin appeared calmer as he was celebrated by smiling children in Kim Il-sung Square and driven through streets decorated with giant portraits of himself and Russian flags.
Putin called the agreement a “landmark document” that reflected the desire of both countries to take ties to a “new qualitative level.”
“Axis of Impunity”
The United States and South Korea have accused North Korea of sending weapons to Russia for use in the Ukraine war, where North Korean soldiers are engaged in fierce fighting with Ukrainian forces along a front stretching more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles).
In the same week that Putin and Kim Jong Un met, the US State Department said North Korea had “illegally transferred dozens of ballistic missiles and more than 11,000 munitions containers in support of Russia’s wartime activities” in recent months.
In their final report before their mission was terminated by a Russian veto, U.N. sanctions inspectors said they had found debris from a North Korean ballistic missile in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city and now the target of new attacks by Russian forces.
Moscow is believed to be providing technical expertise in return for this support. Just two months after Kim Jong Un and Putin met at Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome in September last year, North Korea successfully launched its first reconnaissance satellite into orbit. The visit came just three weeks after an unsuccessful attempt.
Some analysts have warned that the agreement is a new sign of growing cooperation between the United States and countries that oppose the rules-based international order that has provided the framework for global affairs since the end of World War II.
Ahead of his visit to Pyongyang, Putin said Russia and North Korea would confront “pressure, intimidation and military threats from the United States” and “accelerate the building of a new multipolar world.”
Leif Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, spoke of the “emerging axis of impunity,” saying power is “everything” for authoritarian states, but that their relationships are likely to be more unstable than those between the United States and its allies in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.
“Pyongyang and Moscow lack the common institutions, rule of law, and functional interdependence that make the U.S. alliance with Japan, South Korea and NATO countries credible and enduring,” Easley said in emailed comments.
Some point out that the relationship between the two countries is more transactional.
“History shows that North Korea-Russia relations are driven primarily by national interests,” said Ramon Pacheco Pardo, a professor of international relations at King’s College London. He noted that economic and security ties collapsed after the collapse of the Soviet Union and that Putin himself abandoned Pyongyang in 2006 in support of U.N. sanctions. He had not met Kim Jong Un, who became North Korea’s leader after the death of his father in 2011, for eight years.
“If Russia’s invasion of Ukraine somehow ends, it would not be surprising if Russia distances itself from North Korea and seeks stronger ties with other countries, including South Korea,” Pacheco Pardo said in her analysis of the visit.
China Issue
Then there is China, which has long been North Korea’s biggest ally and economic backer and also has growing ties with Russia.
After being elected to his sixth term as president, Putin chose China as his first overseas destination.
Beijing gave Putin a red-carpet welcome outside the Great Hall of the People, after which Putin had tea with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the terrace of the leadership estate in Zhongnanhai. Bilateral trade between the two countries is set to hit a record $240 billion in 2023. China, which claims neutrality in the Ukraine war but has not condemned Moscow’s all-out invasion, is now Russia’s largest trading partner.
In contrast to the condemnation from Washington, Tokyo and Seoul, Beijing’s response has been more muted.
Asked about Putin’s visit to Pyongyang, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said the agreement was “bilateral” in nature.
“Cooperation between Russia and North Korea is a matter between two sovereign nations,” Lin said Friday, referring to North Korea by its official name, without commenting further.
Analysts say that given China is also seeking to stabilize its relations with Washington and improve ties with Europe and its neighbors, it is important to emphasize the bilateral nature of any relationship, whether it is between Russia and North Korea, North Korea and China, or China and Russia.
Indeed, last month Beijing resumed high-level talks with South Korea and Japan for the first time in more than four years.
“China wants to keep its options open in the bipolar world of Northeast Asia and the broader regional and global dynamics rather than being bogged down by Russia and North Korea,” said Yun Sang, director of the China program at the Council on Foreign Relations.
But there are complex issues at stake, as China shares Russia’s vision for reshaping the international order.
“There’s clearly an anti-Western camp forming and one thing we need to watch closely is Chinese and Russian activity across Africa and particularly in coastal countries in Latin America and the Middle East,” Dauer said.
Russia has already signaled its intention to obstruct action by institutions such as the UN Security Council, which has been the core organ of global governance for nearly 80 years.
The drive to Auras is not only a sign of the closeness between the two leaders, but also a sign that Russia in 2024 is fully willing to block the very UN sanctions it once helped to craft.