Editor’s note: This piece was originally published on 13 September 2023 and was republished in light of events. On 18 June 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin travelled to North Korea to meet leader Kim Jong Un. The US has accused North Korea of supplying Russia with artillery and other equipment to use in its war in Ukraine.
While both Putin and Kim have denied that an arms deal between their countries exists, in 2023 they did vow to strengthen ties. When Kim Jong Un pulled into Vladivostok on his armoured train to meet Vladimir Putin in April 2019, he was greeted with a literal fanfare. A Russian military band serenaded his arrival at the station and the Russian president toasted him at a gala dinner.
For the North Korean leader, whose diplomatic outreach to the US had stalled two months earlier and whose economy was struggling under the weight of international sanctions, the lavish welcome allowed him to show that his oppressive regime was not completely isolated. But it was harder to see what was in it for Putin. Trade between Russia and North Korea was minimal, and Russia had voted for tough sanctions on North Korea at the UN Security Council in 2017 after the Asian country’s sixth nuclear test.
Beyond demonstrating that Moscow still held some sway in Pyongyang and Putin was a serious diplomatic player, Kim had nothing that the Russian leader really wanted. But four years later, as Kim returns to the Russian far east, the world has changed. After a pandemic that p.
