An emerging partnership between North Korea and Russia is taking shape amid fears that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is leaning toward launching a war.
Last week, Kim called for North Korea’s constitution to be revised to say South Korea is its “principal enemy,” according to the BBC.
That was followed on Sunday by an announcement from North Korea’s Foreign Ministry that Russian and North Korean officials share a “strong will to further strengthen strategic and tactical cooperation in defending the core interests of the two countries and establishing a new multi-polarized international order,” according to the New York Post.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Russian leader Vladimir Putin is willing to visit North Korea at an “early date.”
North Korea considers Vladimir Putin “the closest friend of the Korean people.” KCNA writes about this after the visit of the head of the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK to Russia. pic.twitter.com/gTBUXpnCmV
— Geo_monitor (@colonelhomsi) January 21, 2024
The North Korean Foreign Ministry also condemned the U.N. Security Council for responding to the test of what state media called an intermediate-range missile tipped with a hypersonic warhead by calling for an emergency meeting.
Russia also shared “deep thanks” to North Korea for its “full support” in the war with Ukraine, North Korea said.
Earlier this month, the White House accused North Korea of sending Russia ballistic missiles Russia used against Ukraine, in defiance of U.N. restrictions, according to The New York Times.
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In return, the Times wrote, Russia shared missile technology with North Korea.
In a commentary piece on the website 38North, Robert Carlin and Siegfried Hecker, scholars at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, in Middlebury, Vermont, wrote that Kim has turned a major strategic corner in his approach to military action — and alluded to the outbreak of the Korean War almost 64 years ago.
“The situation on the Korean Peninsula is more dangerous than it has been at any time since early June 1950. That may sound overly dramatic, but we believe that, like his grandfather in 1950, Kim Jong Un has made a strategic decision to go to war,” they wrote.
“We do not know when or how Kim plans to pull the trigger, but the danger is already far beyond the routine warnings in Washington, Seoul and Tokyo about Pyongyang’s ‘provocations.’
“In other words, we do not see the war preparation themes in North Korean media appearing since the beginning of last year as typical bluster from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”
🇷🇺🇰🇵RUSSIA / NORTH KOREA HAVE THEIR OWN “DAVOS” IN MOSCOW
Putin met with the foreign ministers of Russia and North Korea following their talks in Moscow.
Source: Sputnik https://t.co/TMMYJBiiar pic.twitter.com/tUKo83ra9y
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) January 16, 2024
They noted that their analysis goes against the grain of others who say North Korea’s saber-rattling is largely designed to get attention.
“This might seem like madness, but history suggests those who have convinced themselves that they have no good options left will take the view that even the most dangerous game is worth the candle,” they wrote.
“North Korea has a large nuclear arsenal, by our estimate of potentially 50 or 60 warheads deliverable on missiles that can reach all of South Korea, virtually all of Japan (including Okinawa) and Guam. If, as we suspect, Kim has convinced himself that after decades of trying, there is no way to engage the United States, his recent words and actions point toward the prospects of a military solution using that arsenal,” they wrote.
