The Putin-Kim bromance is a dangerous liaison

Editorial: Rather than the forging of a new axis against Western influence, the Russian president’s rare visit to North Korea is a telling sign of his weakness – and how, to declare victory in Ukraine, he may be prepared to take risks

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un with Russian president Vladimir Putin during their 2023 meeting at the Vostochny Cosmodrome (AP)

There was a time, many decades ago, when an audience between the leaders of Russia and North Korea was a genuine meeting of ideological minds. Stalinism bound Kim il-Sung, grandfather of Kim Jong-un, to his sponsors and counterparts in the Kremlin and, it is fair to say, without the substantial military assistance given to the elder Kim and his comrades during the Korean war, the so-called Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) would not exist today.

Much has changed geopolitically since then, and relations between Moscow and Pyongyang have waxed and waned accordingly. Today, with Vladimir Putin’s first visit to the unpredictable hermit kingdom in a quarter of a century (when the then freshly minted President Putin met Mr Kim’s father), their renewed friendship is based less on sentiment and Marxist-Leninism than on cold calculations of common advantage.

They are both heavily sanctioned international pariahs, both enemies of the West. They share an uneasy relationship with China, which, because of its huge economic power, military prowess and status as a superpower, is more dominant neighbour than dependable friend.