Kim Jong Un he defined himself «unshakable comrade in arms». Vladimir Putin promises him «unfailing support in the face of a cunning, dangerous, aggressive enemy.” The two supreme leaders of North Korea and Russia celebrate their pact of steel by exchanging bellicose pleasantries. This is the framework of Pyongyang summit.
There is no shortage of choreography, with dozens of blow-ups of the Russian president dominating the avenues of Pyongyang, a great mass spectacle in the center; the rhetoric of “brotherhood against Western imperialism” is high. There’s a lot to celebrate, because Vladimir Putin had only been to the “hermit kingdom” once, in 2000, when Kim Jong-un was just a teenager (he inherited power in 2011).
Before arriving, the Russian president wrote a letter to the North Korean people published by Rodong Sinmun in which he announces that «we will develop alternative mechanisms for trade and settlement of transactions that are not controlled by the West». Translated: Moscow and Pyongyang will try to beat and circumvent international sanctions. Putin also promises to «strengthen our defensive capabilities in the face of the reckless plans of the United States and its followers».
Moscow announced the signing of a «Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the Russian Federation and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea».
But the concrete contents of the agreement between the two most sanctioned dictators in the world will remain shrouded in the smoke of fireworks. Neither Putin nor Kim have any interest in publishing their company figuressuffice it to say that they have committed to a strategic collaboration and have personally become great friends.
You don’t have to be a fortune teller to imagine the crux of the agreement. The United States has been reporting for months the sending of North Korean ammunition for the Russian artillery committed to leveling Ukrainian positions. The barter agreed last September when Kim went to meet Putin in Russia, traveling for a week on his famous armored train, provides that the Russians pay mainly with oil supplies and technological assistance for the North Korean missile industry.
The US State Department counted «dozens of ballistic missiles and over 10 thousand containers loaded with large-caliber projectiles» shipped from North Korea to Russia. In total so far this would be approximately 5 million large-caliber bulletswhich weighed on the Ukrainian theater of war, giving the Russians superiority in the volume of fire, considering that the Europeans were only able to promise Zelensky the sending of a million shots by the end of the year and the Americans delayed their supplies for months.
The US State Department consoles itself by observing that Putin “must be desperate if he seeks war supplies in North Korea and Iran”. It’s the Axis of Evil theory that returns.
But in Washington they are not only worried about the Ukrainian front. They fear that Putin’s political support will push Kim to make destabilizing moves on the Korean Peninsula.
Since the start of the year Kim theorized the annihilation of South Korea, he led “in the field” exercises involving missile launches, artillery fire, paratroop raids and tank offensives. In the last few hours there have been movements of North Korean patrols and brief trespasses on the 38th Parallel. Some warning shots were fired from the southern side and the northerners disappeared. The DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) remains one of the most dangerous places in the world, even now that Kim can “jump” it with his missiles. According to Seoul command, the North Koreans have started doing work in their sector again, even with mines. And there would have been an accident: some accidentally exploded devices would have injured or killed several Northern sappers.
There has been a great deal of preparatory work for this summit between Putin and Kim: in the first months of the year, 18 high-level delegations traveled between Moscow and Pyongyang, led by foreign ministers, military and secret service chiefs, officials economy, agriculture, fishing, science and technology. The managers of the Moscow Zoo also arrived, announcing the next shipment of around forty animals to repopulate the Pyongyang biopark.
