Putin’s bid to show strength with Kim summit only highlights his isolation

A green armoured train delivers a North Korean dictator to a meeting with a Kremlin leader, to discuss friendship between their peoples and co-operation in the long fight against western imperialism.

It could be Kim Il-sung meeting Josef Stalin in Moscow in 1949, a year after North Korea (also known as the DPRK) was founded, or his grandson Kim Jong-un trundling to the Vostochny cosmodrome in eastern Russia on Wednesday for talks with its current ruler, Vladimir Putin.

Both delegations were coy on the content of the summit at Russia’s most modern space rocket launch site, amid US warnings that it would be “huge mistake” for Pyongyang to tap its stores of Soviet-era arms to replenish Moscow’s arsenal 18 months into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The venue suggested that Putin and Kim wanted to keep the possibly grubby talk of ageing ammunition under wraps and project an image of dynamic, forward-thinking leaders forging a high-tech partnership for which even the sky may not be the limit.

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Analysts think Kim wants Russian help with his satellite programme, after North Korea failed at least twice this year to launch its first military spy satellite.

[ Putin claims Russians eager to fight in Ukraine as North Korea’s Kim arrives for talks ]

[ Kim Jong-un promises Putin North Korea’s full support for Russia’s ‘just fight’ ]

Kim is also thought to be seeking Russian co-operation on missile and submarine technology, and just last week unveiled what Pyongyang called its first operational “tactical nuclear attack submarine”.

Specialists doubt the viability of the vessel and any surveillance satellite that Kim’s regime could launch in the near future, but its rocket forces are more formidable and fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast shortly before Kim and Putin met, angering South Korea and Japan.

The Kremlin is unlikely to share any cutting-edge technology, however, and insists it will not break United Nations sanctions on Pyongyang. Similarly, any North Korean ammunition supplies to Russia will not transform its struggling campaign in Ukraine.

[ 'We will always be together in the fight against imperialism', Kim tells Putin ]

[ Ukraine war: Crimean shipyard on fire, two ships damaged in missile attack says Russia ]

For both leaders, the summit was a way to show they are not as isolated as the West would like. But for Putin in particular, it had the opposite effect, highlighting how his travel options and guest list have dwindled since he destroyed relations with the West and fell foul of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court.

At least the former KGB officer would have heard a nostalgic, cold war-era ring to the blandishments of his guest.

“The Soviet Union played a very big role in the liberation of our country… now Russia has risen to the sacred fight to protect its sovereignty and security against the hegemonic forces that oppose Russia,” Kim declared. “I also hope that we will always be together in the fight against imperialism.”