Putin last visited Pyongyang in 2000 to improve ties with Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, while the current North Korean leader’s visit to Russia’s far east last year offered signs of the deepening relationship.
The agreement Putin and Kim signed on Wednesday could “lay the groundwork for arms trade and also facilitate their anti-U.S. and anti-West coalition,” said Lami Kim, a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu.
Officials in the West are concerned about weapons and intelligence sharing that could both help Putin’s army in Ukraine, and threaten the U.S. and its allies in Asia.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that Russia was trying “in desperation, to develop and to strengthen relations with countries that can provide it with what it needs to continue the war of aggression that it started against Ukraine.”
He said North Korea had been providing Russia with “significant munitions,” as well as other weapons for use in Ukraine.
U.S. intelligence officials believe Putin is providing North Korea with nuclear submarine and ballistic missile technology in exchange, six senior U.S. officials have told NBC News. The Biden administration, they said, is concerned that Russia might help North Korea complete the final steps needed to field its first submarine capable of launching a nuclear-armed missile.
Both North Korea and Russia have denied any transfer of arms, which would be in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions that Russia has supported in the past.
Russia ended the monitoring of U.N. sanctions against North Korea with a veto in the Security Council earlier this year that drew accusations that Moscow was avoiding scrutiny and joining China in shielding Kim from consequences for his weapons tests.
China, which is North Korea’s most important trade partner and is also growing closer to Moscow, has been muted in its response to Putin’s North Korea visit. On Tuesday, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said only that it was a bilateral interaction between Russia and North Korea.
The agreement with Moscow may give Pyongyang access to much-needed oil and natural resources for its decimated economy and missile program.
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