Putin’s Ukraine War Enablers, North Korea and Belarus, Form New Alliance

Two of the world’s most pro-Russian dictators, from opposite sides of the Russian land mass, have hugged and clasped hands in common cause with Moscow as it wages war on Ukraine. North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, hosting Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko in Pyongyang, predicted “many things beneficial to promoting the prosperity” of both countries. Mr. Lukashenko responded that the visit would “expand and intensify cooperation with each other.” Beyond the flowery rhetoric, the tie that binds the leaders of these two countries, 4,600 miles apart, is the support they are offering Russian forces bogged down in a war of attrition in Ukraine. While North Korea has sent thousands of troops to support the Russians, Belarus provided a base for Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine from the north and continues to host Russian troops and drone guidance stations.For Belarus and North Korea, which have had diplomatic relations since 1992, to establish a full-fledged alliance during Mr. Lukashenko’s summit with Mr. Kim reflects Russia’s need for all the support it can get. The hand of Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, was evident in the visit in which the leaders, not known to have had anything to do with one another previously, wound up signing a “Treaty on Friendship and Cooperation.” Also sealed were specific deals on matters ranging from diplomacy and information sharing to agriculture and education, according to Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency. Conspicuously, there was no report of a military agreement, but the whole show supplemented alliances that Mr. Putin has reached with both countries. The visit joined two authoritarian figures who have long bowed to Moscow, never more deeply than now. Belarus’ dictatorship may be less repressive than that of North Korea, but Mr. Lukashenko, 71, and Mr. Kim, 43, both believe in one-man rule that tolerates no dissent.The difference, besides the degree of harshness, is that Mr. Kim is third in a line of hereditary rulers of North Korea, beginning with his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, a former Soviet army officer who counted on Soviet support through the Korean War until the demise of Soviet rule at the end of 1991. Mr. Lukashenko, who grew up without a father while his mother worked odd jobs, served in Soviet border forces and rose to power via the Communist Party.During Mr. Lukashenko’s visit, Mr. Kim spared nothing in the kind of ceremonial gestures that should inspire the envy of President Trump and South Korea’s president, Lee Jae-myung. Both yearn for invitations from the North Korean leader, who has totally ignored them while declaring South Korea “the enemy.”The flags of Belarus and North Korea flew above Pyongyang’s Kim Il-sung Square, KCNA reported. An honor guard, “honorary cavalry” and a military band were joined by “Pyongyang citizens and schoolchildren” carrying “the national flags of the two countries and flowers in their hands” for Mr. Lukashenko’s arrival, the agency said. It added that Mr. Kim “warmly” greeted his guest to “the playing of welcome music.”From there, during three days in Pyongyang, Mr. Lukashenko was honored with all the trimmings befitting an important chief of a major nation. He paid his respects at the mausoleum bearing the remains of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, father of Jong-un; placed a wreath at the base of Pyongyang’s Liberation Tower; attended an artistic performance; and was honored by Mr. Kim at a lavish reception.Mr. Lukashenko was anxious to show the relationship did not burst into bloom overnight. “The friendly relations between our countries that were established back in the Soviet era have never been interrupted,” Belarus’ state news agency quoted him as saying. “We are entering a principally new stage. With a long delay, but we are moving forward.”

Putin’s Ukraine War Enablers, North Korea and Belarus, Form New Alliance

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