Potential Putin-Kim arms deal a worry

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

News of a proposed alliance between Russia and North Korea is alarming, with its potential to extend the disastrous war in Ukraine.

American intelligence and overseas news reports say North Korean leader Kim Jong Un plans to visit Russia this month for a face-to face meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin to arrange an arms deal.

Russia is said to be desperately in need of artillery shells and other ammunition — and the reclusive North Korea has ample supplies.

In return, North Korea desperately needs money and food.

Sanctions imposed against North Korea and a long Covid-19 border closure have left it even more isolated than before, with a risk of another famine for its long-suffering people.

Kim has a strong hand at the bargaining table and there are fears he could demand increased military support from Russia, with even the possibility of things like joint naval exercises involving the two countries and China — which has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion.

Recent military exercises off the Korean peninsula by the US, Japan and South Korea provoked rage from North Korea which regards them as a provocation.

The fact China has refused to punish North Korea for its weapons tests are said to have allowed the totalitarian dictatorship to develop its nuclear arsenal.

The war in Ukraine has dragged on for more than 18 months, with heavy loss of life on both sides — including about 10,000 Ukrainian civilians — and little progress by either side over the past year.

Recently the Ukrainians say they have made a breakthrough of the heavy Russian defence systems in the south of the country, in territory it occupied in February, 2022.

But time is against the Ukrainians, with the northern hemisphere winter fast approaching. This raises fears that a kind of World War 1 stalemate will continue for some time to come.

Trying to work out what Kim is thinking has most Western observers struggling. One recent report is that the talks may not even go ahead. Kim refuses to fly and in the past has used an armoured train on the extremely rare occasions that he travels abroad.

In the Korean War of the 1950s, North Korea was said to be playing off China and the Soviet Union to gain greater assistance from both.

China and Russia are closer now than they were then although there still may be something to gain from such a move by the unpredictable but definitely shrewd Kim.

For the United States and its Europeans allies, and all the millions of people who desperately want to see this brutal war ended, a Russia-North Korea alliance is a major concern.