Children with balloons, an honor guard of soldiers and huge portraits of the two heads of state with their national flags decorating the streets and the “Great People’s Study Hall”: Russian President Vladimir Putin was welcomed in North Korea’s capital Pyongyang on Wednesday with a particularly lavish ceremony – and by many cheering people.
These are unusual images: During the pandemic and in the first year of the Ukraine war, the Russian ruler had hardly left his country, barricading himself behind a huge wooden table when visiting from abroad. After his sham election in March, that changed: In May, Putin was received by Russia’s important trading partner China and traveled to Belarus and Uzbekistan.
This week we’re going to North Korea and then on to Vietnam. In the diplomatic arena, the person receiving the visit from abroad is usually considered to be more important or influential.
The fact that Putin’s visit to the small, isolated communist dictatorship is accompanied by so much pomp and propaganda could be a sign that Pyongyang and Moscow are well aware of how isolated Russia really is on the international stage.
It is Putin’s first official visit to North Korea in 24 years, and follows a trip by North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un to Russia in September. At the time, the two heaped praise on each other. Putin said he saw “opportunities” for military cooperation with North Korea, while Kim wished the Russian president “victory” in Ukraine. The former, at least, is already a reality today: research suggests that Russia also uses North Korean weapons for its attacks on Ukrainian cities.
“We greatly appreciate your consistent and unwavering support of Russian policy, including with regard to Ukraine,” the Russian state news agency RIA quoted Putin as saying at the start of talks with Kim on Wednesday. The Russian leader said Moscow was fighting against the “hegemonic, imperialist policy” of the US and its allies, domestic media reported. And Kim declared that relations between North Korea and Russia would enter “a new heyday.”
Neighboring South Korea and the Western world are watching this rapprochement with increasing nervousness. The spokesman for the US National Security Council, John Kirby, said: “We are concerned about the deepening of relations between the two countries.” On Tuesday and Wednesday, Putin and Kim are said to have signed a strategic partnership agreement.
According to Putin, it includes mutual “assistance” in the event of “aggression” against one of the two states. “The comprehensive partnership agreement signed today provides, among other things, for mutual assistance in the event of aggression against one of the contracting parties,” Putin said on Wednesday, according to Russian news agencies. Russia does not rule out “military-technical cooperation with North Korea.”
The two rulers have a lot to gain from better relations – and little to lose. Their countries are internationally isolated and already so heavily sanctioned that the USA and its allies can hardly exert any influence. Russia needs supplies of ammunition, which North Korea seems to be able to provide.
Kiev says it has already found North Korean shells on the front lines in Ukraine. The US and South Korea accuse the Kim regime of sending millions of artillery shells to Russia. Both countries deny this.
Kim, for his part, can use Russia’s seat on the United Nations Security Council to ease sanctions and expand his nuclear and missile arsenal. This process is already underway: In March, Russia used its veto in the Security Council to reject a renewal of the UN panel of experts that monitors the enforcement of sanctions against Pyongyang.
Washington and Seoul also said Moscow had provided Pyongyang with technical assistance for its satellite program and sent support to the country, which is suffering from food shortages. By moving closer to Russia, North Korea also wants to reduce its dependence on its main trading partner, China.
Following his visit to North Korea, Putin will travel to Vietnam on Wednesday and Thursday. This may seem surprising given the country’s recent rapprochement with the USA. But communist-ruled Vietnam has had close relations with Russia for decades.
It is not a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which issued an arrest warrant against Putin on suspicion of war crimes in Ukraine. The Russian ruler is therefore not threatened with arrest and extradition to The Hague there either.
In Vietnam, too, the focus is on expanding a strategic partnership. Russian companies are producing oil and gas in Vietnamese fields in the South China Sea. Hanoi also wants to build a nuclear power plant and Putin is likely to be interested in the Russian company Rosatom being commissioned to do it. However, Putin will not be able to procure weapons in Vietnam, as the country gets most of its military equipment from Russia.
Putin’s visit to Vietnam will be primarily about signaling to the rest of the world that, despite the sanctions, Russia is not as isolated as the West would like. Putin is likely to be welcomed there with open arms. And the West is unlikely to like that either: the USA is, after all, Vietnam’s most important trading partner.
Germany is also courting the resource-rich Asian state in its search for alternatives to China. Vietnam, like many smaller countries in Southeast Asia, is reluctant to be drawn to one side and wants to maintain good relations with all countries. This strategy is also known as “bamboo” diplomacy, flexible to all sides.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Putin’s visits showed how “dependent” Moscow was on authoritarian leaders to carry out its offensive in Ukraine. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba ridiculed the “lonely bromance” between Putin and Kim Jong-un.
The West knows that Putin is planning nothing less than an alternative world order. In a front-page article in the North Korean ruling party’s main newspaper, he promised to “develop alternative trade and mutual settlement mechanisms that are not controlled by the West” and “build an equal and indivisible security architecture in Eurasia.”
