Putin may need arms from North Korea’s Kim, but what is he willing to give in return?

Hong Kong CNN —

As Russian President Vladimir Putin makes his first visit to North Korea in more than two decades, his focus is widely seen to be on securing ongoing support from the hermit nation for his grinding war in Ukraine.

Putin ramped up his outreach to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last year as his weapons stockpiles dwindled – and munitions and missiles have flowed from the country to Russia since a landmark summit between the two leaders in September, multiple governments say, even as both Pyongyang and Moscow deny the transfers.

But while the leaders’ meeting in the globally isolated, Soviet-style capital of Pyongyang provides an opportunity for the two autocrats to discuss how to expand that cooperation, observers say it will have consequences far beyond the battlefield in Ukraine.

Putin’sarrival in Pyongyang in the early hours of Wednesday local time for the two-day visitmarks a significant step forward for a partnership founded on shared hostility to the West and its allies – one that empowers both leaders and deepens global fault lines.

The two are expected to ink a new strategic partnership agreement, with Putin saying ahead of the visit that they would “shape the architecture of equal and indivisible security in Eurasia,” according to the Kremlin.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with Russia's President Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang on June 19, 2024.

“The relationship is not just about necessity,” said Edward Howell, a lecturer in politics at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, who focuses on the Korean Peninsula. “We are seeing the two states forge an increasingly concerted united front and alignment against the United States and the West.”

These divisions were only underscored by the