Putin To Meet Kim "In Coming Days"

Russia's Interfax news agency has confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, "in coming days" on the margins of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia. IFX reports that Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu will also attend.

• The meeting could be a highly significant geopolitical event for the security environment of the Korean Peninsula.
• Although US officials have downplayed the significance of the meeting, an enhanced military alliance between Moscow and Pyeongyang could increase North Korea's access to high-tech components required to accelerate its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
• US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters yesterday: "I think the fact that Russia is having to beg North Korea for military support speaks to the effectiveness of our sanctions and our export controls..."
• This analysis undervalues North Korea's huge stockpiles of conventional and low-tech artillery munitions critical to Russian's prosecution of a strategy of aerial bombardment.
• A deal with Russia is also likely to include shipments of food to N Korea, detached from conditions designed to revive diplomatic talks with Pyeongyang on nuclear disarmament and easing isolation.