Covering a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un might best be described as a caption contest: The two held what the Kremlin called \u201cvery substantive\u201d discussions on Wednesday, but beyond a few photo opportunities, we still have very little idea what went on behind closed doors. <\/p>\n
Putin and Kim shook hands at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia\u2019s Amur Region; the North Korean leader got a lift in Putin\u2019s Russian-made Aurus limousine; and Kim raised a toast to his counterpart, promising Russia would punish \u201cevil forces\u201d \u2013 dictator-speak that appeared to endorse Putin\u2019s ghastly, grinding war of attrition against Ukraine. <\/p>\n
But the two sides held no press conference and issued no communique. No deals were publicly announced. Figuring out the real takeaway from the summit in Russia\u2019s Far East is going to be a challenge, even though the global stakes are quite high. <\/p>\n
Back in July, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu went to Pyongyang with an apparent shopping list. After a year and a half of high-intensity combat in Ukraine, Russia\u2019s ammunition stocks have been heavily depleted, and US officials warned that North Korea and Russia were mulling potential deals to replenish supplies for Moscow\u2019s war on Ukraine. North Korea has a substantial arsenal on the Korean peninsula. <\/p>\n
If this is what\u2019s being hammered out in Russia \u2013 and we have seen no proof thus far that such a deal has been agreed \u2013 it would represent Pyongyang\u2019s entry into a contest with the industrial bases of US and NATO members, which have been incrementally but steadily providing Ukraine with the ammunition it needs to slug it out with Russia. It\u2019s a life-or-death race, with Putin apparently counting on support waning for Ukraine as the US enters a presidential election season. <\/p>\n
And there\u2019s potential of something in return for Pyongyang. Kim\u2019s regime is heavily isolated: Multiple rounds of sanctions have targeted North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Even Russia has signed on to North Korean sanctions in the past. <\/p>\n
But Putin appears to be extending a potential lifeline to Kim as his own government comes under sanction for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, apparently dangling the carrot of access to Russian technology. <\/p>\n
On a visit to the cosmodrome, a reporter asked Putin whether Russia would help North Korea \u201claunch its own satellites and rockets\u201d \u2013 to which Putin responded, \u201cThat\u2019s exactly why we came here.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe leader of North Korea shows great interest in space, in rocketry, and they are trying to develop space. We\u2019ll show our new objects,\u201d Putin said. <\/p>\n
Kim\u2019s interest in shiny objects may sound somewhat innocuous. But the Kremlin leader\u2019s phrasing calls to mind the old joke credited to the comedian Mort Sahl about Wernher von Braun, the German rocket scientist who pioneered Nazi Germany\u2019s ballistic missile technology during World War II: \u201cHe aimed for the stars, but sometimes he hit England.\u201d <\/p>\n
Von Braun\u2019s contribution to missile technology and to the US space program is well documented. His work paved the way for both space exploration as well as the development of the intercontinental ballistic missile, capable of lofting nuclear weapons across the globe. <\/p>\n
So we are still dealing with a major unknown when it comes to a potential technology exchange between North Korea and Russia. The US believes Pyongyang has already been a player in the Ukraine war, providing the Russian mercenary group Wagner with arms. <\/p>\n
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Wagner, dismissed the allegation as \u201cnothing more than gossip and speculation\u201d before he died when his plane fell out of the sky last month. <\/p>\n
If Russia is handing over this launch technology to North Korea, then, the world may potentially be witnessing the wider global fallout of Europe\u2019s largest land war since 1945. And the convergence of two pariah states may be playing out in unexpected and dangerous ways. <\/p>\n\n
Covering a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un might best be described as a caption contest: The two held what the Kremlin called \u201cvery substantive\u201d discussions on Wednesday, but beyond a few photo opportunities, we still have very little idea what went on behind closed doors. Putin and <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8694,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}