Why should this meeting concern Americans? First, Russia is a notoriously belligerent nuclear menace, and North Korea has nuclear-armed ballistic missiles that, according to Japan, have the ability to hit anywhere in the United States. Also, since Russia invaded Ukraine, Russia has grown even closer to rogue regimes, Iran and China. These four countries—Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran have formed a supply chain of terror, resupplying each other with critical munitions, drones, and military hardware needed to keep Russia’s military armed and active. In short, the Putin-Kim partnership is dangerous for American national security.
The world has grown increasingly dangerous and unsteady under President Biden’s tenure. Now, in addition to new wars or catastrophes in every year of the Biden presidency, global despots meet and openly flaunt their plans to replace the West. With generational threats emanating from the quartet of evil—can we trust President Biden to keep America safe?
The Putin-Kim summit will be another setback for the Biden Administration, as it could yield a new exchange of artillery shells and military supplies to Russia. Kim is taking advantage of Russia’s desperation for weapons to secure more advanced Russian conventional arms, aid, and space technology support.
Putin’s visit to North Korea will also likely further bolster Russia’s war machine. Under Biden, they will likely continue to get away with breaking international sanctions without practical consequences. This is another tragic episode of American power and foreign policy descending into collapse over the last 3 ½ years.
For all the talk of the “adults being back in charge”, the Putin-Kim partnership has flourished under Biden. As Kim has noted, the two countries are now “invincible comrades-in-arms.” Pyongyang and Moscow are increasingly supplying what the other lacks in commodities and arms, helping circumvent international sanctions intended to deter their aggression.
North Korea’s complicity in Russia’s war effort against Ukraine is now well-documented despite their denials of arms transfers, which are prohibited under multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions.
According to public reports, U.S. intelligence, commercial satellite imagery, and the South Korean government indicate that the North Korea has provided Moscow with munitions and military equipment. Russian cargo ships transit between the North Korea port of Najin and Russia’s Dunay, a former Soviet submarine base. According to retired South Korean brigadier general Moon Seong-mook, a negotiator at inter-Korean military talks in 2007, “North Korean weapons are getting target practice in Ukraine, and Russian feedback on the weapons’ shortcomings will allow North Korea to advance its technology even more.”
Although Russia faces a weapons shortage in its war in Ukraine, the supply chain of terror delivers: North Korea’s ballistic missiles enable its continuous assault. Kim has designed new weapons—such as advanced artillery systems and short-range ballistic missiles—specifically for regional conflicts. North Korea also appears to have sent Russia up to 4.8 million ammunition shells and other conventional weapons.
The contrast with the Trump Administration’s record on North Korea policy is stark. President Trump abandoned the decades-long mold of diplomacy and pursued direct engagement, which reduced miscommunication, paused Kim’s nuclear and missile testing, and secured MIA recoveries. U.S. negotiators also exercised restraint in both the Singapore and Hanoi meetings when Pyongyang demanded intolerable concessions.
While the problem of North Korea has beguiled multiple Republican and Democratic Administrations, President Biden’s near silence on the country and their inability to put meaningful checks or sanctions on the Kim regime has only emboldened his illicit trade. Under this Administration, North Korea, Russia, and other rogue states conduct military trade and resupply operations to each other, to the detriment of American and her allies. Make no mistake—Putin and Kim’s meeting this week will be a public relations boon to every despot who despises democracy and the rule of law. Despite Biden’s claims, America is anything but “back.”
