What to watch at the Kim-Putin summit

MOSCOW/SEOUL – What should the world be looking for when

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin

in Russia in the coming days?

The Kremlin said on Monday that

Mr Putin had invited Mr Kim to Russia

for what will be Mr Kim’s second known visit to the country and his first trip abroad since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Who is Kim with?

If he travels with a full military delegation, that could give an indication of the nature of the talks. Also of interest is who he meets besides Mr Putin, such as

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, who visited North Korea

in July.

The United States has expressed concern over what it calls advancing arms negotiations between the two countries, with

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan urging Mr Kim

“not to supply weapons to Russia that will end up killing Ukrainians”.

The US has accused North Korea of providing arms to Russia, but it is unclear whether any deliveries have been made. Both Russia and North Korea have denied those claims, but promised to deepen defence cooperation.

What does Putin say?

Analysts say the North has huge supplies of artillery shells, rockets and small-arms ammunition that could help Russia replenish the vast stocks it has expended in more than 18 months of war in Ukraine, though their quality and the country's ability to mass produce more is unclear.

Workers may also be something Russia is interested in amid record low unemployment. Before United Nations Security Council resolutions banned them in 2019, Russia was estimated to host nearly 20,000 North Koreans, according to a report by the Association for Asian Studies.

In return, Russia could offer grain, oil and military technology as Mr Kim looks to develop capabilities such as nuclear-powered submarines and military reconnaissance satellites.

North Korea’s latest

Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile

– its first ICBM to use solid rocket fuel – has reignited debate over possible Russian links to the nuclear-armed state’s dramatic missile development.

Anything Kim says on nuclear weapons

For the past several years, the UN Security Council has been divided over how to deal with North Korea. Russia and China have said more sanctions will not help and want such measures to be eased.

Whatever else comes from the meeting, the summit itself is a sign of support for each country as it faces off against international sanctions and pressure.

Mr Putin said after holding his first face-to-face talks with Mr Kim in 2019 that proposed US security guarantees would probably not be enough to persuade Pyongyang to shut its nuclear programme.

In 2019, Mr Putin described Mr Kim as “quite open” and as “thoughtful” and “interesting”.

What do Beijing and Washington say?

Communist North Korea was formed in the early days of the Cold War with the backing of the Soviet Union. The North later battled the South and its US and UN allies to a stalemate in the 1950 to 1953 Korean War, with extensive aid from China and the Soviet Union.

North Korea was heavily reliant on Soviet aid for decades, and the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s contributed to a deadly famine in the North.

Pyongyang's leaders have often tried to use Beijing and Moscow to balance each other. Mr Kim initially had a relatively cool relationship with Russia and China, which both joined the US in imposing strict sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear tests.

Anything quirky

Both Mr Putin and Mr Kim know how to catch global headlines.

In 2019, the two leaders attended a gala dinner where they toasted each other and watched traditional musical numbers and dancing performed by Russian artists.

The numbers included the Russian classic song Black Eyes and a Korean song called The Great Commander.

The two men also exchanged gifts. Mr Kim gave Mr Putin a traditional Korean sword, while the Russian leader gave Mr Kim a sabre and a tea service suitable for use on his armoured train.

Mr Kim’s rare foreign trips have occasionally offered more candid moments than what leaks from the tightly controlled state media in the North.

During his 2019 summit

with former US president Donald Trump in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, Mr Kim spoke to foreign journalists for the first time, during a photo opportunity.

That summit, for which he spent days travelling by train through China, also revealed more interactions between Mr Kim and his sister Kim Yo Jong. TV footage captured the North Korean leader taking a cigarette break at a railway station in the southern Chinese city of Nanning, with Ms Kim approaching him, holding a crystal ashtray in both hands.

At a

2018 inter-Korea summit

, 12 male bodyguards in dark suits made international headlines after they surrounded Mr Kim’s Mercedes-Benz vehicle and jogged alongside. REUTERS