Brothers in Arms or Friends with Benefits? Russia-DPRK Strategic Engagement | Dr Alexey D. Muraviev

The war in Ukraine has acted as a trigger for the reanimation of the frozen strategic ties between Russia and North Korea. Kim Jong Un's regime was one of the very few that openly sided with Moscow when it invaded Ukraine in February 2022. In 2023, Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu led a large Russian defence delegation to Pyongyang. In September that year Kim Jong Un held his second meeting with Putin and toured the Russian Far East.
Despite ambitions to increase economic ties, the Russia-DPRK rapprochement is likely to prioritise political, security and defence cooperation, to counteract US plans to strengthen the trilateral security and defence arrangement with Seoul and Tokyo alongside the AUKUS agreement.
What will Putin's forecast visit to the DPRK, which may occur as early as May, reveal about how far the two regimes are prepared to go in rebuilding strategic ties?