For decades, North Korea has pursued a policy of self-isolation, making it one of the most reclusive countries in the world. The country’s politics have been shrouded in mystery, resulting in the aptly dubbed name of the Hermit Kingdom. However, in recent months, Pyongyang watchers have seen a shift in North Korea’s foreign policy as the country enters a new relationship with Russia. This new relationship, the strongest since the Cold War, does not only include the selling of weapons between Moscow and Pyongyang, but the deployment of North Korean troops on Ukrainian soil.
North Korea was founded after the Korean peninsula was partitioned by the Soviet Union and the United States. The Korean War, fought between 1950 and 1953, had a profound impact on North Korean political thinking, as it resulted in the adoption of the Juche ideology, which champions self-reliance and self-isolation. Juche ideology argues that North Korea can, and should, develop through little or no foreign assistance. However, during the Cold War, North Korea received considerable economic assistance from the Soviet Union and China; this assistance not only helped North Korea rebuild but also matched South Korea’s economic output. The collapse of the Soviet Union and China’s establishing relations with South Korea made North Korea more isolationist, poor, and vulnerable, a trend that continues to this day.
However, Russia’s war with Ukraine saw Pyongyang closely ally itself with Russia. As Russia was cut off from the West, it turned toward North Korea for support, to which the North Koreans responded by supplying the Russian forces with weapons. This new diplomatic effort also saw Russian President Vladimir Putin visit Pyongyang for the first time in 24 years in June of 2024, signing a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty with his counterpart, Kim Jong Un, who remarked that the two countries have embarked on “a period of high prosperity.”
A more recent development also saw North Korea deploy its troops, sending around 10,000 soldiers to the front lines. These soldiers are disguised, using fake Russian passports and uniforms. North Korea’s direct involvement in the war also threatens the high possibility of transfers of advanced military technology between the two countries in areas such as nuclear weapons. Hypothetical exchanges such as these, if realized, would drastically destabilize the global security apparatus and heighten tensions.
The rationale behind Pyongyang’s supporting Russia in its war against Ukraine is three-fold: economic support, military cooperation, and diplomatic leverage against China.
Since the 1990s, North Korea has faced chronic food shortages due to its isolationist policies, and its economy is ranked last on the Economic Freedom Index. The country’s lack of arable land and modern agricultural farming materials made it unable to feed its population, with 60% of people living in abject poverty. However, as Russia’s supply of food to North Korea began, the two countries evaded international sanctions, which brought Pyongyang and Moscow closer together than ever since the dawn of the Cold War. In exchange, North Korea has provided Russia with direct assistance, such as sending eight million artillery shells, and today, it has supplied manpower to help Russia fight in Ukraine.
Despite North Korea not publishing its economic data, the Bank of Korea (South Korea’s central bank) estimates that North Korea’s G.D.P. grew by 3.1%, the first time the country’s economy expanded in four years.
The two countries’ closer relationship also means they are mutually sustainable in the short run: North Korea desperately needs economic and technological support, while Russia needs military assistance in the forms of weapons transfer and manpower. The relationship also makes the two countries capable of reaching their immediate aims without the help of other countries, especially China. In fact, China has distanced itself from the burgeoning Russia-North Korea alliance. North Korea’s closer partnership with Russia also undermines China’s influence and control over Pyongyang as it historically served as North Korea’s most powerful economic and military partner.
The alliance can also encourage the United States to strengthen its military cooperation with South Korea and Japan, to China’s chagrin. China would lose significant influence over peninsula affairs if South Korea were to align closer with the West. Supposing Seoul believes that Moscow will come to Pyongyang’s aid in a conflict as Kim has helped Putin, Seoul would have more reasons to seek a closer military alliance with the United States, a scenario that would anger China.
Mao Zedong, China’s first leader, described China’s relationship with North Korea as close as “lips and teeth,” but China has quickly discovered that Kim’s lips are kissing someone else.
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