6/18 International News

Putin just visited North Korea for the first time in 24 years and was all smiles with Kim Jong Un.

The two leaders signed a bold new agreement, which entails a requirement that if either country finds itself in a state of war,the other must provide immediate military assistance by any available means.

The summit between the two dictators has resulted in the new strongest point of bilateral relations between the two countries in decades. 

It is also very likely that Putin cozied up to Kim in order to receive more military weapons and ballistic missiles to aid his current war in Ukraine. Russia is using up their munitions fast and North Korea has a lot.  

Putin says he is fighting an ongoing war against the U.S. and its “imperialist hegemonic policy”

Fresh off this visit to North Korea, Putin just recently arrived in Vietnam for a visit highly condemned by the U.S. in order to prompt his ongoing war in Ukraine. 

Are the world’s leaders shaping up for a new Cold War? … The foreign policy developments of late might indicate this ever-increasing reality. 

Opinion: 

For Kim Jong Un, holding this summit is good for him as hosting a major world leader and signing a new military alliance with Russia decreases their diplomatic isolation from the international system. This increases his credibility within his own state, as well as breaking from their identity as a rogue state. This also comes amidst a time of increased tensions with South Korea as the two states go head to head with psychological warfare by means of sending air balloons full of poop to the South, and blaring anti-North Korean propaganda thorugh loudspeaker towards the North. 

Although sending shock signals throughout the West, this move is not unlike Putin. He has a track record of successfully stroking the egos of narcissistic leaders, as we saw with Trump, and otherwise gets on with most of the world’s dictatorial figures. Putin is a modern case of realpolitik, so a move like this where he creates a military alliance with one of the only other non-western nuclear powers makes sense in response to Western discourse surrounding deploying NATO troops to Ukraine. Putin is all in on conveying believability to NATO. He’s making his rounds to any states that he can get on his side and prove to NATO that if they keep pushing on this Ukraine issue, he is willing and ready to make it global war. Russia does not realistically have the capacity to fight NATO but Putin does have the diplomatic ability to demonstrate his resolve and truly test the West’s willingness to test global war over Ukraine.