It is a meeting that no one wants in the Western camp. But it is also a tete-a-tete that offers opportunities for both the leader of North Korea and the president of Russia. After all, both have what the other does not while, together, they have the same… enemy, the West. Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un know they can and are now working to help each other.

Vladimir Putin has already reached out to Washington’s longtime enemy Iran as, after 18 months of war in Ukraine, Moscow he’s out on the… gun round as stocks run out and Western sanctions against it make it harder for Russian arms companies to import the necessary parts to build new weapons.

According to experts, Pyongyang can also deploy rockets and artillery shells, dating from the 1950s, in Moscow. Besides, it will not be the first time since North Korea has also in the past supplied weapons to Syria and Myanmar in violation of the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council.

As analysts note, Pyongyang could demand trade-offs. He needs grain, oil and humanitarian aid from Russia, while it is known that Kim Jong Un is also interested in sensitive Russian military technology that would allow him to improve his country’s nuclear weapons.

At the same time, with its stance, Pyongyang manages to get out of the way of its diplomatic isolation, the margins of which began to narrow further from 2019 onwards when the talks between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump on the country’s nuclear disarmament collapsed. Since then successive United Nations sanctions have made its economy more fragile.

At the same time, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un have begun become increasingly dependent on China and as very aptly noted by the British television network BBC in a special tribute it is always better to have more than one friend.

Both Russia and North Korea choose to send a resounding message with this attitude. On the one hand, Moscow chooses to show that it has both options and solutions. Among them is that he still remains able to pick new allies. On the other hand, Pyongyang focuses more on South Korea and in this direction chooses to send a resounding message. This is nothing more than Seoul not getting closer to Washington.

Russia and North Korea become allies out of necessity. History will tell how long they will manage to remain “friends”.