It is a bunkerbuster that solves diplomatic and security issues surrounding the Korean peninsula as if it were a precision strike. Hello. I'm Kim Ah-young from SBS's Unification Diplomacy Team. About ten days after the U.S.-ROK summit in Washington, the leaders of South Korea and Japan will meet in Seoul, and a few days later, the leaders of the United States and Japan will meet again in Japan. As relations between South Korea and Japan, which used to be weak links, are accelerating, the United States and South Korea are embracing each other more than ever. The relationship between North Korea and China and Russia on the other side is not much different. North Korea has restored its traditional, smooth relationship with China and is growing stronger with Russia.


Putin declares 'real war'..."Win the holy war" cheered North Korea


It's Russian President Vladimir Putin's space. On the 9th, we started at Red Square in front of the Moscow Kremlin. It was the 2th anniversary of the Soviet Union's surrender from Nazi Germany in World War II. It was the second "Victory Day" after Russia invaded Ukraine, and compared to last year, it was noticeable that the size of the arms mobilization and the number of personnel were reduced. According to foreign media, 78 tanks were mobilized last year, 131 this year, and only 51,11 troops were mobilized this year after 000,8 troops were mobilized last year. President Putin has made a bitter declaration that a real war is now going on against Russia. It's the first time he's officially used the term war since the invasion of Ukraine.


Vladimir Putin / President of Russia
Today, civilization is once again at a decisive turning point. A real war was fought against our Motherland.


The state-of-the-art weapons were barely visible this time, but the three shows seemed conscious. Unlike last year, the presidents of the former Soviet Union, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan also participated. And even if they didn't make it to Moscow themselves, there was one other person who cheered more enthusiastically than they did.


Korea Central TV: We will continue to win in the future


North Korea's Kim Jong-un.


Korean Central Television (Congratulations to General Secretary Kim Jong-un): Boldly fighting for international justice and safeguarding world peace against imperialists' coercion and tyranny.

Only one intense encounter... Kim Jong-un-Putin 'bromance'?


Although the international community has infinite credibility in the war that it condemns fiercely, it is only once that the two have met and talked in person. In April 2019, it was still windy in Vladivostsk, Russia.


General Secretary Kim Jong-un: Good morning.

Russian President Vladimir Putin: Welcome.


At this point, North Korea's deception would not have been true. It had only been two months since he traveled to Hanoi, Vietnam, dreaming of a "big deal" with Trump and came empty-handed. As if to soothe his bitterness, Kim Jong-un grabbed Putin's hand to forge a new North Korea-Russia relationship. Putin, who has been in power for more than 20 years, and Kim Jong-un, who has been in power for 10 years. Is there anything different about long-term leaders meeting each other just once? North Korea-Russia relations, and have been speeding up ever since. Experts, however, say that a single tear on the relationship between the two countries reveals a different picture than it appears on the outside.


Andrei Lankov / Professor, Kookmin
University (North Korea and Russia are facing each other) I smile, but I'm still very weak inside. Despite anti-American nationalism (in Russia), a very critical, very critical consciousness of North Korea is still mainstream. (The relationship between the two countries) is a temporary alliance In fact, that's a statue.


It was more of a temporary relationship that repeatedly stuck or moved away from each other according to each other's needs than an unwavering relationship with solid roots.


When you take sides, be sure... Ukraine took a 'chance'


Since the war in Ukraine, North Korea has been sending a message to Russia that "we are definitely on your side." In March last year, just one month after the war, the United Nations held its first emergency special session in 3 years to vote for a resolution condemning the Russian invasion and calling for the withdrawal of troops. The vote was overwhelming, and China and Iran abstained without being able to oppose it. But North Korea made the same choice as Russia. Only five countries voted against it that day, including Russia and North Korea. The independence of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR), proclaimed by pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, was also quickly recognized by North Korea, after Russia and Syria.


Kim Sung / North Korean Ambassador to the United Nations
The right to self-determination is the legitimate right to freely choose sovereignty and international political status without interference from other countries.


It seems that one voice of support in the international arena has decided that it is a great opportunity to make a splash with Russia, which has no leverage against Russia. It is clear that North Korea will receive it. It's an absolute ring veto in the hands of Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council.


Andrei Lankov / Professor, Kookmin University From
North Korea's point of view, it's cheap. Supporting Russia at the UN General Assembly does not (require) (separately) investment. Instead, Russia can block sanctions against North Korea at the UN Security Council, which mean much more. It's a very good deal (for North Korea). You give something cheap and you get something expensive.


In the current UN Security Council system, it is impossible to reject only one China, which is an additional sanction, but it seems that Russia has definitely double insurance. The analysis is that North Korea, which is accelerating the advancement of its nuclear arsenal, will not be too bad if the war in Ukraine expands the US front to Russia and emphasizes the so-called new Cold War structure.


Lee Ho-ryeong / Director of the Center for Security Strategy Studies, Korea Institute for National Defense Studies Because they think it is the most favorable phase for North Korea, they are emphasizing that it is a "new Cold War system" and talking a lot about the three-on-three structure of North Korea, Russia,
and the United States, and North Korea is more advantageous than Russia.


In fact, North Korea fired a solid-fuel, intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, the Hwasong-18 last month, without receiving any additional sanctions.


Russian-made missiles ... When military cooperation becomes explicit?


Another interesting thing here is the appearance of Mars Type 18. This is because it resembles the solid-fuel ICBM Topol M, which Russia developed in the 1990s and 2000s. The latest arsenal tsun, which North Korea said it had been preparing for more than a decade, appears to be a replica of Poseidon, an intercontinental nuclear-powered torpedo that Russia actually deployed. The KN-10, a short-range missile that is said to be difficult to intercept due to its anomalous trajectory, is also called the North Korean version of Iskander because it resembles Russia's Iskander missile.


Andrei Lankov / Professor, Kookmin University North
Korea already conducted a lot of espionage activities targeting military companies in the 1970s. I believe that the engineers who became unemployed after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s could have delivered important technology to North Korea, both because of money or because of anti-American ideology.

Lee Ho-ryeong / Director of the Center for Security and Strategic Studies, Korea Institute for National Defense Studies The People's Army was born, developed,
and laid the foundation for the Soviet Union. So, in fact, a large part of North Korea's conventional weapons have been developed on the basis of Russian-made weapons.


Putin's closest confidant, Deputy Chairman of the Russian National Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, recently made some pretty gruesome threats to us. He took aim at a foreign interview with President Yoon Seok-yeol, who left open the possibility of weapons support for Ukraine, and wondered what South Koreans would say if the latest Russian weapons were handed over to North Korea.


Andrei Lankov / Professor, Kookmin University (Russia protests) We can export tanks or hardened weapons
(to North Korea) and we can deliver this or that technology. I think it almost certainly is. (Why do you think that?) It's just, because this is retaliation.


Russia's veto power is another thing, but to engage in military cooperation more blatantly than it is now would be a completely different story.


Missiles are not everything... Russian stake in North Korea's nuclear?


It's not just over Russia's shadow, missiles. North Korea signed a nuclear research treaty with the Soviet Union in 1956 and an atomic energy treaty in 1959. The reactor at the Yongbyon complex in the 1960s was also supported by the Soviet Union. In addition to technical cooperation, there is also an analysis that the Soviet Union was at every inflection point where North Korea became clear of its determination to develop nuclear weapons. An example is the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when the Soviet Union attempted to deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba on the edge of the U.S. chin, bringing it to the brink of nuclear war. The situation at the time, which was the greatest crisis of the Cold War, was short-circuited by the Soviet Union's withdrawal of missiles deployed in Cuba, which is said to have caused no small shock to North Korea.


Andrei Lankov / Professor, Kookmin University For
them, the Cuban missile result is a betrayal of the Soviet Union. That's the signal. Could the Soviet Union and the United States make a compromise that is not in our national interests? In order to prevent such a scenario, we (North Korea) may have thought that we should develop nuclear weapons on our own.


The period of North Korea's reassessment of its relationship with Russia was also a time of a different reading of world affairs.
The current Book-Russia relationship, maybe it could lead to a bigger butterfly effect than we thought?


The G7 to contain Russia... Booker close contact continuation


The event of the leaders holding Russia in check is coming to an end again. The G19 Summit of the seven major countries will be held in Hiroshima on the 7th. The U.S. has also consulted with G7 members on a ban on Russian exports of all items except pharmaceutical products. There will be a diplomatic arena to isolate Russia and Putin, and North Korea is seizing the opportunity to reach out to Russia, where its friend is gone. The reality is that it is no longer possible to avoid the sharpening of the democratic and authoritarian camps, but it may be North Korea that is quietly laughing behind the scenes.

Video Interview : Hyun Sung Kim / Editing : Jung Yong-hee / Content Design : Integrity / Production : D Content Planning Department