Vladimir Putin's dangerous bromance with Kim Jong Un

Russia’s dictator may arrive in Pyongyang this week.

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Mr Kim Jong Un has a new best friend. Out is Donald Trump, who exchanged saccharine letters but spurned him at a summit in Hanoi in 2019. In is Mr Vladimir Putin, who has courted Mr Kim for weapons to fuel his war in Ukraine. They now have an "unbreakable relationship of comrades-in-arms", the North Korean dictator gushed in a recent message to his Russian counterpart. Mr Kim has made two trips to Russia's Far East to meet Mr Putin since 2019; Mr Putin is expected to soon make his first visit to Pyongyang since 2000, the year he became president.

The bromance has blossomed thanks to geopolitical shifts. Mr Kim turned away from talks with America following the failed summit in Hanoi and began making fresh overtures to Russia.

The response was lukewarm until Mr Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine floundered and Russia came to need munitions, one of the few things Mr Kim's regime has in abundance. But the implications of the realignment go beyond the weapons trade. "It's a mistake to think about it simply as an arms deal," argues Ms Jenny Town of the Stimson Centre, an American think-tank.

North Korea plays a useful part in Russia's wider confrontation with the West, helping to complicate American strategy in Asia and to undermine multilateral institutions. In March, Russia vetoed a United Nations resolution to extend the mandate of the Panel of Experts, the main international body for monitoring sanctions on North Korea. By cooperating with North Korea, Russia also aims to deter South Korea, a big arms producer and American ally, from providing direct lethal aid to Ukraine.

For North Korea, Russia proved a godsend in a time of need. Mr Kim was especially isolated abroad and diminished at home following the debacle in Hanoi; years of sanctions and the Covid-19 pandemic had not helped, either. Trade with Russia has helped stabilise the economy, while summitry with Mr Putin has burnished Mr Kim's image.