Russian President Vladimir Putin’s highly anticipated summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang Wednesday was heavy on optics, light on substance.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s highly anticipated summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang Wednesday was heavy on optics, light on substance.
Questions linger, however, over its ideological sustainability.
Mr. Putin’s late arrival — in the early hours of Wednesday morning, rather than on Tuesday, as planned — looks like an assertion of primacy over his host. That may have been aimed at his domestic audience, as Mr. Kim leads a country that Moscow has been forced to turn to for ammunition, but which Soviets and Russians customarily looked down upon for its oddness and backwardness.
In Pyongyang, the two leaders signed a “comprehensive strategic partnership” but did not release any details. Russian media discussed it only in broad generalities with references to past relations. Mr Putin, however, noted that it includes a “provision of mutual” assistance clause in the case of armed conflict.
Regardless of any jockeying for “face” and the content of strategic discussions, Russian and North Korean media were alive with good vibes as the two leaders interacted.
Rude signal, good vibes
Mr. Putin is notorious on the international scene for turning up late for meetings with fellow heads of state heads — a habit he indulged Wednesday.
Footage from the early hours of Wednesday showed Mr. Kim waddling with apparent impatience on the tarmac of Pyongyang’s floodlit Sunan airport as he and an honor guard awaited Mr. Putin’s arrival and flunkies unrolled a broad red carpet.
In daylight on a fine, early summer day in Pyongyang, flag-waving crowds lined streets as the two leaders rolled by, standing side by side in an open-topped limo.
Military bands played Russian airs as civilians danced in the capital’s landmark Kim Il-sung square — named after Mr. Kim’s grandfather, and constructed after the Korean War from the bulldozed rubble of the capital.
Mr. Putin was filmed introducing Mr. Kim to his entourage, which included Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov and new Defense Minister Andrey Belousov.
The two leaders held two hours of discussions, after which the new partnership was announced.
