Recently, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited Russia, which attracted global attention. This is another important diplomatic event after his three "Kimp meetings" with Trump in the United States, which is called "Kimp 2."Version 0".
The meeting place between Kim Jong-un and Putin is a Russian space launch site. This choice undoubtedly sends a strong signal to the DPRK and the United States. In response to a reporter's question, Putin bluntly stated that Russia is willing to share advanced space and satellite technology with the DPRK. He said, "Why else are we here for?"”
The talks demonstrated the close alliance between Russia and North Korea and the deep military cooperation between the two countries. The United States was extremely disturbed by this, and Biden's security adviser Jake Sullivan immediately issued a warning, saying that if Russia and North Korea strengthen military cooperation, the United States will impose tougher sanctions on both countries.
Although Russia and the DPRK did not publicly announce the details of military cooperation, there is reason to believe that *** and military assistance between the two countries has begun. There are three main reasons for this:
First, both Russia and North Korea are the targets of maximum pressure from the United States and have been forced to come together.
Russia and North Korea have long-standing friendly relations, but Russia has not provided advanced military technology to North Korea over the past few decades. In recent years, however, the United States has adopted a policy of extreme pressure on both countries.
As for Russia, the United States has excluded it from the G8 group of countries since 2015 and has joined forces with the European Union to impose multiple rounds of sanctions on it. Starting in 2021, the United States has also supported Ukraine** in launching an attack on the armed forces in eastern Ukraine, forcing Putin to intervene with troops.
The United States, for its part, imposed sweeping sanctions on North Korea, cutting off North Korea's path to industrialization and military modernization. Under pressure from the United States, North Korea has repeatedly issued war and nuclear threats, but because of the lack of support from China and Russia, it cannot compete with the United States and South Korea, so it can only swallow its anger.
As a thorn in the side of the United States, Russia and North Korea have a basis for deepening their alliance.
Second, Russia and the DPRK have a high degree of military complementarity and need each other.
Recently, the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield has reached a stalemate, mainly because both Russia and Ukraine are facing ammunition shortages. Over the past year and a half, Russia has relied on the military legacy of the Soviet era and the confrontation with Ukraine, which has been supported by ammunition from the United States and the European Union. The war has been going on so far, and both sides feel "out of ammunition" and cannot achieve a decisive victory.
Ukraine is currently seeking more ammunition assistance from the United States and the European Union, while Russia has a relatively limited supply of ammunition**. In the past, Russia played the role of "big brother" in its dealings with Iran and North Korea, and both Iran and North Korea relied on Russia's help. Few people thought that Iran and North Korea would one day become "countries that support Russia militarily", but it turned out that at the beginning of this year, when Russia was experiencing difficulties on the battlefield, it was the use of drones imported from Iran that turned the tide.
North Korea, like Iran, used to need Russia's support, but now it has the leverage that Russia desperately needs, and instead has the initiative in the interaction between the two sides. Do you still remember that during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, the Korean Peninsula was a sensitive area where a hot war broke out between the two camps of the United States and the Soviet Union?At that time, the DPRK stockpiled a large number of Soviet-made ** and ammunition. These old and substandard ammunition have now become a rigid need for Russia.
The DPRK has a huge stockpile of Soviet-made ** ammunition, which is exactly what Russia needs, and Russia also has the resources that the DPRK craves. North Korea's Songun politics has given it a strong military manufacturing capacity, but it lacks cutting-edge military technology. Therefore, North Korea is like a factory with huge production capacity, but lacks drawings and core technology.
This time, Russia and the DPRK chose to meet at the cosmodrome, explaining that space technology, satellite technology, and even nuclear submarine technology are all within the scope of the deal between the two sides. In addition, under US sanctions, the DPRK can only "smuggle oil" on the high seas, does not have enough energy resources, and cannot achieve industrialization and agricultural mechanization. The oil, gas and grain that North Korea urgently needs are precisely Russia's surplus resources.
It can be seen that Russia and the DPRK complement each other militarily, and each other's advantages are each other's needs, so deepening military cooperation is logical.
Third, the "sanctions" of the United States have reached their limits and are no longer restrictive.
In the past, the United States imposed all-round sanctions on the DPRK in addition to the UN resolutions, exhausted all means, and the DPRK also had a certain degree of tolerance. In the past year and a half, the United States and the European Union have imposed more than a dozen rounds of sanctions on Russia, exhausting all the ruthless tactics, but Russia's energy ** and national economy have not collapsed, indicating that Russia has also had strong resilience to the extreme sanctions of the United States.
Therefore, even if Russia and North Korea strengthen military cooperation this time, the United States will not have any new sanctions to deter them. The sanctions card that the United States was able to play in the past has been played, so both Russia and North Korea will ignore the new American threat and continue to deepen military cooperation.
This deep alliance between Russia and the DPRK presents both challenges and opportunities for our peaceful rise. The key to the challenges and opportunities lies in whether North Korea can stabilize the situation and avoid premature war with the United States and South Korea.
Some experts believe that this military cooperation between Russia and North Korea will strengthen North Korea's confidence and allow North Korea to launch an attack on South Korea soon and change the pattern of Northeast Asia. If so, it will fall into the trap of the United States.
On the contrary, if the military cooperation between Russia and North Korea is aimed at allowing Russia to fight for a long time on the battlefield in Ukraine, it will deplete the power of the United States;At the same time, it will give North Korea more time to digest and use the advanced military technology provided by Russia to improve its military strength. Waiting until North Korea has a greater advantage, and then confronting the United States and South Korea, this will win us more strategic opportunities.
If there is a war on the peninsula in the near future and we have just begun to recover economically, the surrounding areas will fall into a long-term war, which will be detrimental to our development. If the DPRK fully grasps Russia's military technology in a few years before starting to do it, then our internal circulation will be more perfect, our dependence on foreign capital will be less, and the economic cycle will be more favorable, and we will be more confident in dealing with wars in our neighborhood.
Moreover, history is like a big circle, more than 70 years ago, the United States landed from Incheon, ignored our warnings, crossed the 38th parallel, and burned the flames of war to our northeastern border. At that time, the Northeast was the cradle of our industry and the treasure trove of energy, and we could not let the United States occupy the peninsula and threaten our security. As a result, we launched the heroic War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and also gave up the war of reunification with Taiwan.
Nowadays, our geopolitical environment has undergone tremendous changes, and once the United States is once again mired in a peninsular war, when the war in its neighbors is inevitable and capital has been lost, then it is precisely the best time for us to "recover" Taiwan in one fell swoop.
As long as we are prepared, complete reunification as soon as possible, and stabilize the situation, we will be able to usher in a larger-scale return flow after the outflow of capital.
The deep alliance between Russia and North Korea shows that both countries want to fight to the death with the United States. This big war against hegemony has challenges and opportunities for our peaceful rise, and it depends on how we plan ahead and make decisive decisions!