With his visit to North Korea, Russian President Vladimir Putin is sending a chilling signal to the West, writes the Russian publication mk.ru.
The Korean Peninsula is one of the most strategically important regions in the world. On a relatively small territory, the interests of various powers intersect: the USA, China, Japan and South Korea.
For Tokyo and Seoul, such an expansion of cooperation between Russia and North Korea is a rather significant deterrent: they should not go too far in their support for Ukraine.
If you overdo it, then “Ukraine” (in the sense of active armed conflict) could start right next to your borders and/or even inside those borders itself, is the Kremlin's signal.
Of course, this is the most extreme scenario that is unlikely to come true. A return to a state of head-on conflict with the West is not in Pyongyang's interest. But playing on the edge is what Russia's entire foreign policy now boils down to.
„Friendly and good-neighborly relations between Russia and the DPRK, based on the principles of equality, mutual respect and trust, date back more than seven decades and are rich in glorious historical traditions“ - these words are from an article by Vladimir Putin.
Relations between the Russian Federation and the DPRK are now experiencing a new flowering - directly proportional to the decline in relations between Russia and the West. The geopolitical reality of the summer of 2024 is that Moscow and Pyongyang are natural allies.
The German publication focus.de writes that for a long time Russia had no particular interest in the isolated pariah state in East Asia. Kim Jong Un is now becoming an important partner of Moscow for one reason – the millions of artillery shells it provides to the Russian aggressor in its war against Ukraine.
For a long time, Putin did not show much interest in North Korea. He has visited Pyongyang only once and that was 24 years ago. Countries barely cooperate economically. Most interesting to the Russian economy are the North Korean workers who work on Russian construction sites and factories - and who must give a large part of their wages to the Kim regime. Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine changed the situation. Putin is building a common front against the West. North Korea also has something of great interest to Russia: artillery shells and missiles.