“The best friend of the North Korean people”

Vladimir Putin in North Korea. It has been known for some time that the Russian president would travel to Pyongyang, at least since he received Kim Jong-un near Vladivostok last September. But the timing chosen for the visit is a very clear message in response to the G7 summit and the Swiss conference on peace in Ukraine which took place in recent days. Putin signals to the G7 that he does not consider the condemnation from the Apulian summit regarding the deepening of his military ties with North Korea to be legitimate. In Kiev, however, he makes it clear that he has no intention of opening peace negotiations on Volodymyr Zelensky’s terms. Pyongyang is in fact the most explicit supporter of the Russian war, defined a few days ago as a “sacred mission” by supreme leader Kim. The support is not only political, as in the case of China, but also very practical, given that according to Seoul and United States intelligence, approximately nine thousand container trains have traveled between North Korea and Russia in recent months. On the one hand, weapons and missiles to support Moscow’s war effort. On the other, above all food for a country that is even more isolated than usual in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.