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“Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed an agreement Wednesday that pledges mutual aid if either country faces ‘aggression,’ a strategic pact that comes as both face escalating standoffs with the West…
“The summit came as Putin visited North Korea for the first time in 24 years and the U.S. and its allies expressed growing concerns over a possible arms arrangement in which Pyongyang provides Moscow with badly needed munitions for its war in Ukraine, in exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers that could enhance the threat posed by Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile program…
“Along with China, Russia has provided political cover for Kim’s efforts to advance his nuclear arsenal, repeatedly blocking U.S.-led efforts to impose fresh U.N. sanctions on the North over its weapons tests. In March, a Russian veto in the Security Council ended monitoring of U.N. sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear program, prompting Western accusations that Moscow is seeking to avoid scrutiny as it buys weapons from Pyongyang.” AP News
Both sides urge a strong response to the new developments:
“Biden is on autopilot when it comes to North Korea, recycling talking points on denuclearization circa the Obama administration. Most experts think North Korea has at least 50 nuclear bombs now. Pyongyang has spurned more than 20 private attempts by the administration to restart talks…
“The United States should launch a major human rights and information penetration campaign… Recent events — including North Korea’s deploying of trash balloons to the South in the past weeks in retaliation for South Korean loudspeakers blasting K-pop music at the border and NGOs dropping bibles into the North — shows how sensitive the regime is to its people being exposed to the outside world. The Kim regime is more afraid of BTS than U.S.-ROK military exercises. U.S. policy desperately needs to try something new, and leveraging this fact is the best place to start.”
Victor Cha, MSNBC
“The democratic world must respond with at least as much solidarity as the autocracies are displaying. A good start would be to draw tighter links among U.S. allies in Europe and Asia. There has already been considerable movement in this direction: Last year’s NATO summit was attended by the leaders of Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan, and those Pacific partners have also been invited to next month’s NATO summit in Washington…
“Given that Russia now seems determined to upgrade North Korean military capabilities — thereby increasing the danger to Japan and South Korea — it would make sense for those two countries to provide direct military aid to Ukraine… The world’s leading illiberal powers recognize their congruence of interests and are drawing closer together to tear down the rules-based international order. The world’s democracies need to be at least as staunch in staring down the threat from the ‘alignment of evil.’”
Max Boot, Washington Post
Other opinions below.
“From the escarpments of France’s Normandy, where Western allies came together earlier this month to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion against the Nazis, to the G7 summit in Italy’s Puglia region, to the Peace Summit in Switzerland this past weekend, scores of countries have voiced support for Ukraine, equating Russia to the reviled aggressors of previous wars. Many have backed their soaring rhetoric with significant steps of assistance…
“So, it’s hardly surprising that Putin is pushing against his diplomatic isolation and seeking to invigorate his weapons pipeline; the main purposes of his visiting the North Korean capital he has not seen in nearly a quarter of a century.”
Frida Ghitis, CNN
“Though he would never admit it, Putin is isolated diplomatically, and to a lesser degree economically, to a damaging extent. In years past, the idea of Russia (and before that, the Soviet Union) needing impoverished North Korea’s support would have been met with derision. Not now. It also says something about the weakness of Russia’s vaunted arms industry and war economy that it is so reliant on imported shells…
“Another possible downside of Putin’s east-Asian power games is the dubious view taken by China, his vastly more important ‘no-limits’ ally… China understandably worries that a bilateral partnership of the type Putin is due to announce, based around nuclear weapons, could one day come to threaten its own security. Unending Sino-Russian amity is not guaranteed…
“The Biden administration is fully aware of the negative strategic and geopolitical implications of deepening Russia-North Korea ties. But it has done little in practical terms to hinder the process. Since Trump, contacts with the North have been minimal… North Korea is but one piece on a much bigger 21st-century chessboard. As in Ukraine as in Gaza, the old world of pax Americana and an international order based on the UN Charter is dying before our eyes. In its place, a terrible travesty is born.”
Simon Tisdall, The Guardian
“The U.S. has accused North Korea of ‘unlawfully’ sending ballistic missiles and 11,000 containers of munitions for Russia to use against Ukraine. In return, Russia is propping up the North with money and other aid, as well as technology for advanced weaponry. Especially dangerous is Russian help for the North’s long-range-missile and satellite-launch programs. These could put U.S. space assets and the homeland at risk…
“The U.S. response is to issue statements of denunciation that include words like ‘unlawfully,’ as if either the North or Russia care. Russia used its veto at the Security Council in March to disband a U.N. panel that monitored North Korea’s compliance with sanctions. The realistic conclusion is that Russia and China want North Korea as a nuclear-armed state to threaten South Korea, Japan and the U.S… The U.S. and its allies will have to rearm, and far more urgently than President Biden and Mr. Trump seem willing to do.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
“[Some are concerned] that North Korea and Russia have reached a mutual defense commitment… These concerns are misplaced…
“Putin is no idiot. He knows that the risks of a Russian intervention in North Korea’s favor would be far outweighed by any possible gains. He knows that North Korea could not defeat South Korea and the U.S. in a military conflict. He knows his military could not significantly alter the balance of power in North Korea’s favor. And he knows that were Russia to intervene even in a limited manner and even if the war did not go nuclear, he would open his forces to devastating losses…
“That said, in providing this agreement to Kim, Putin secured three political wins. First, he secures Kim’s gratitude for what the dictator will present at home and abroad as a victory of his supreme diplomatic skills… Second, Putin bolsters China’s effort to undermine U.S. alliances and influence building in the Pacific… Third, Putin will hope that this agreement will scare the West.”
Tom Rogan, Washington Examiner
