we ask why? because education makes the world make up your own mind. made full minds. the welcome to ask the w, i'm really, and this is the show where your questions takes that are states today are russian president vladimir putin travels to north korea for the 1st time and almost 25 years to me. kim, john own, who rarely host foreign leaders. we want to take, that's what the thumbnail should look like. once you're there, you can post your questions and comments and we'll put them to our experts and please don't be shy. we're very much looking forward to hearing from you now. jenny, is your last out while we wait for the 1st questions to come in. let's take a closer look at the relationship between vladimir putin and kim jong, a north korean leader kim,

join in russia. last you shaking hands with his russian counts of pond, loved him at present demand, he now calls an invincible. come read the notes and strips of north korea and 2 said racing with came the latest demonstration of deepening toys between them must go and fume. yeah, the throughout the series of the united states of june, close to since russia lost its full scale invasion of ukraine's finding friendship . i mean growing global life selection. but it's a relationship that still can concerns in the west. south korean and us officials say the north has been feeding the russian blooms, she's spending millions of munitions to moscow. they say russia in baton has provided most career with military technology and economic kate in defiance of un resolutions sold in washington of housing, emergency cool to discuss the visit. but despite the western criticism, the kremlin said it has every right to develop ties with phone yet and shouldn't be

challenged for doing so. this comes this tensions on the korean peninsula. steadly built the us and south career recently conducted joints era exercises teaching a b one strategic moment to allow for the shooting for you did the 1st precision guided building drill in 7 years. south korea this month, scrapped and military packed with the news, allowing it to resume combat drills on the shared folder. the ritz pod said it was responding to a barrels of north cream balloons, filled with vcs and trash that was sent towards the south. and now it's time to get the conversation started with jenny town from the north korea monitoring group a $38.00 north and douglas c manascale of our studio in re, guys that gosh, let's start with you ahead of history. food and phrase po and young supports of his war in ukraine. how has killed young boost at russia's war efforts so far?

so when you call, we are observing since last year says 2020 for an intensification. so in this relations between russia and north korea, and the russian defense minister went with a 1st visit to north korea in july of last year. and just 2 months later in september can junk on travel to russia. she met with letting me put in there. so and ever since we are getting more and more reports about this, um corporation on arms exports from north korea to russia to support the russian war effort. this is what in the us and its allies and ukraine say. and now russia and north korea denied this, but the risk compelling evidence which supports this. i think the strongest piece of evidence is a report from the united nations and which is concentrates on a specific missile attack on the north ukrainian city of hockey. on the 2nd of

january as of this year and the debris collected after this, after this attack could be analyzed and do you an expert said that and this was the debris was in fact from a north korea made a ballistic miss. i'll serious for us on the 11th. so there was more accusations of dots and we do us the and south korean officials say that some $10000.00 containers to where could have been transported already from north korea to russia since last year to boost this russian war effort. yeah, let's bring in jenny town that jenny, all of this support is not an act of charity. of course. how is north korea benefiting from all of this? well enough, good benefits in a number of ways that include obviously payments for the arm sales itself as well

as we've seen deeper cooperation in the economic around a resumption of trade. um, uh, some indication that there may be, you know, joined our cultural zones that are, are being developed as well as political support. right. so we seen russia now, vito, for instance, the, the un security council mandate to renew the, the monitoring decisions, monitoring body. the panel of experts, so that's been just banded, making it more difficult now to monitor at a and an international level. um the distinctions implementation is anxious violations that are going on. so we've seen political support. we seem economic support. and of course, this is the 1st time we've seen actual military cooperation between any country and north korea and a very long time. mm hm. i just want to quickly remind our viewers. if you have

a question for analysts, you can post them in the chat in our ask dw, live stream its slowly starting to gain some direction. but i don't be shy, just ask away. in the meantime, i would like to know from you, jenny, the, what impact does this, this growing, the strengthening alliance between russia and north korea have for global security as well. it's been a very troubling trend, especially, you know, in south korea, in the us looking at how north korea achieves as goals. and so, um, you know, north korea has obviously been very determined on building its nuclear arsenal and improving its capabilities over time. if it does get russian help and the in the technology around, it is possible that it could move more quickly and achieve greater boss faster that

would oppose more technical problems in us and allied defenses in the region. and i think more broadly, it really does bolster this concept of building, you know, an alternative world order. and so it creates options for north korea in terms of its economic act. oh, you know where instead of having to comply with sanctions that it's now dealing with countries like russia and other like minded countries that are willing to work with it despite sanctions, which makes it more difficult to distance and devise the track that it's on. yeah. and actually is there, gosh, let's pass the ball to you because of letting me put in said ahead of his visit that he wanted to cooperate with north korea to overcome sanctions from the west together. how are they likely to go about that?

as a thing, darts 2 main ways that russia could do that and rushes at a permanent member of the united nations security council. so it has a veto right over this un sanctions that there where in pose and south korea over it's a nuclear end to this i pro programs and as, as jenny has just pointed out, russia has already started doing just that. so this is one way and i think in other a way is in is really just working around these sanctions that are in place. as we know, of course, russia and north korea have sure to come on board. there was a very short piece of board. there's just 17 kilometers long, but it's just long enough to have this crucial train right away. connection running there. and it was very telling the beginning of this year when russia presented it came junk one with a high end russian aids limousine, which was in itself

a breach of a sanctions regime. because the trade in luxury goods with north korea is, is prohibited under un sanctions. so i'm thinking these were, this will be the ways that russia will be exploring incorporation with on korea. it's jenny, some analysts are calling russia's increase military cooperation with north korea. a threat like no other. would you agree? i'm not, i'm not sure i'd agree like no other but it's definitely concerning. and the the extent to which they may cooperate, i think is, is still unknown. and it's something that we may get some clarity on from the summit itself, whether they go back to that sort of mutual defense arrangement that they had during the soviet era. or if they, if they, if they still keep, you know,

cooperation going. but i have more limited level. um, so you know, i, i wouldn't over state what their cooperation would be or even the sustainability of it over time. but in the meantime, it does pause, mutual benefits to both actors that does push them into a room that makes it a more for middle forest, especially for the north koreans than what we've seen in the past. and we have some problems with our live stream until now, but i'm being told that the stream is now up and running. so we're, we're here still waiting for your questions to come in, ask away. in the meantime though, i want to bring up some things that nato secretary general, salzburg just said he's on a visit to washington dc and he expressed his concern about potential support. russia might be providing to north korea for the modernization of its nuclear

program. how big of a factor is that jenny, in there cooperation, you think? and it's, i think, at this point, it's really hard to say russia has been very open about being willing to cooperate, for instance, on satellite technology. north korea has been on a big push to develop and put in orbit um military recognizance satellites. this technically is not sanctioned activity, but the actual satellite launch vehicle themselves would be if there is cooperation on that. and because there are military applications to the booster technology of the rockets whether russia is cooperating in other you know, w, m, d rounds is unclear. there do seem to be indications that it is helping, you know, in terms of quality control on the conventional side and then munitions, factories, for instance, helping improve the quality of what's being provided to russia. but there's it,

there. i don't think there's any clear evidence yet. that they really, you know, passed over into the room. so say for instance, um, sharing this all technology or nuclear weapons designs or things on backorder. but it would be, you know, obviously concerning if they did and, and again, it would help north korea move more quickly at dad's as programs more quickly than what it can do on its own. mm hm. and we have our 1st user question. there it is, one for as a goes, i'd say a yes sorta our grandma is asking, is russia, i'm going to move away more and more from europe and the west. what do you say? gosh, i mean, this is clearly the trend. this is something that's the russian president is talking openly about russia. now, what this is in there is in for a long conflict with the west and that it has to because of great, it has to pivots to what's uh, route to west asia and,

and the nearly and every speech we are hearing because the russian president talking about the need to create this and multi pull our world that's russia is needs to develop its relations with other major countries of the world. that's a and i think he's that at the same the same time he's reacting and creating this new reality that to death. russia is finding itself and mm hm. now, jenny, if most goes alliance with young, young is growing closer. this must be on china's radar. where does that leave this big important, allied to both of those players? it was not in a good place. i think that you know, i think there is a lot of concern in beijing about what's happening. and again, trying to understand the extent to which these 2 are cooperating when it comes to,

you know, the, when it comes to different approaches, you know, russia, for instance, as a, as has been said, it has really been working towards building an alternative world order of of ending, you know, this us lead um, economic paradigm world paradigm where is, you know, china still wants to be a part of that in china. and definitely, you know, wants to have a, as a leadership role within that system. and so, you know, the actions that both russia and north pier are taking on some level work against chinese interest. and, and this is certainly to amazing on how to handle this. because at the same time, i think there is still sympathy with been vision about the, the actual security situation, especially for north korea. because you know, china seeing the same patterns in east asia of greater us influence greater and nato influenza in east asian affairs of greater security cooperation between the us

. uh, south korea and japan. and it's all very concerning in terms of, you know, the perception of encirclement for rush or for china. and so, you know, when north korea invokes this kind of, you know, language and this kind of security dynamic as well. you know, it still fits within that time these narrative, so it makes it very difficult for them to really push back against the actions that north korea is taking even when it does work against its interest. yeah, um, i just want to ask our viewers to don't be shy. i wanna encourage you to post your questions. they're starting to trickle and i'm going to ask one of my own. and then i hope to have some more user questions kind of docking onto a jenny just said she goes and china is very concerned by the height intentions on

the korean peninsula of how does, does rush out feel about a possible escalation between north and south korea i also within say, an escalation and a violent escalation is in russia's interest of the thing. and russia uses these intensification of contacts with north korea. pragmatically, we've been talking about the alarms, the reverse and, but it's also a sort of leverage. well, 1st of all, we shouldn't forget that russia has been participating in the sanctions regime against north korea for over a decade from 2006 to 2017. yes. later this great. our competition and now the world's ukraine has the prompted russia to change ways, but i, i'm not sure if this initial assessment, that's a north korean and if you have program a could be

a friend also to russia. i'm not sure if this assessment is totally gone. i wouldn't say so. so at the same time working with north korea now and is a way for rush at the signal to the west. hey, this is we, we can be disruptive. we can be disruptive to this, the international system of governess on the sanctions regime that we've been cooperating with you on. so you have to deal with us again. and on the other hand, the also important relations with south korea and south coast, russia and south korea have a degree of cooperation and trade relations are where even more important than we have north korea. and especially in this situation, russia has a very big interest in south korea, not delivering weapons to ukraine and south korea is not doing that, but it has a formidable arms industry. enough. korea has signed big arms and supplied treaties with nato member, poland 2, which is which is also supporting ukraine strongly. so russia definitely does not

want south korea and increase its support for the increased cooperation with the western cancer even recently. so i think it was, it has been phrasing and sole stance and position are not sending gums to ukraine. so by corporate thing with north korea, russia is also sending a signal to the south korea to south korea to and to not increase its uh, corporation. and support for and then comes, which is back in ukraine in conflict. and i have a question from test got 12 to both of you and they ask, are there any alternatives that can cool down the current situation? let's start with you, jenny. is it? yes, the, there are, there are ways in which the, the ways in which we can not react to some of the actions that are being taken

these days. but it's going to take, so real political leadership and enter a real sense of a and i think i a real confidence, especially on this upcoming side to not react to some of the things that north korea is doing. so as diverse, as i think there, there has the utility in having a certain level of tension on the korean peninsula. that does how, you know, for instance, russia in, in the war and ukraine and keeping the us and soccer distracted as well as keeping the stakes highest for this upgrade, getting further involved in the war and ukraine. um, but you know, the even the back and forth between the balloons. um, you know, and, and south north korea sending the trash balloons to, to south korea. um, you know,

this kind of action is probably like the least provocative military action guide. north korea could have taken and for the us, since i'll clear to respond, would be one bomber runs. it sort of force is, you know, north korea to respond in a more military manner as well. so there, there are actions like this where, you know, a level of restraint is needed, especially since we don't have open communication channels between the 2. korea is right now. um, as there, there are such tests relations. i think it really takes that, that political leadership to create some off ramps here in order to not push each other into a more violent escalation. and how do you see it, jack? gosh, is there a way to cool tensions between russia and the west? as i think and,

and what's coming concerning the korean peninsula. i think jenny really has, has described a situation very, very well. and i wouldn't have much to have. and i think in a broader picture concerning, concerning the relations between russia and the west. and i think, and we are now in the middle of a process in which in ukraine and russia are competing for support for international support for a possible solution to this conflict. we've just had this major ukraine piece summit in switzerland were over 19 cutting over 90 countries have attended. and even though russian officials were playing this conference down and it's really it really shouldn't be neglected. that this was quite formidable of success on the ukrainian side to kind of set up the agenda for the future negotiations and, and the, and i think this is also a,

this district also shows is the providing me of what is now going to north korea. she would like to travel to vietnam, so he's tried trying to get support from the she's trying to show the, the risk to support from other countries for russia. so i think, and i think that many of these countries don't really wants to see a bigger escalation. and i would say that's this just ongoing process of trying to win over support from other countries. could be a factor which could actually contribute to. and lowering the tensions between russia and west questions still only slowly coming in here on the job. so feel free to keep them coming. and there is a theme that i'm seeing of people asking about the quality of military supplies coming out of north korea. what can you tell us about that jenny? as well, i think in the early days from anecdotal evidence there it was clear that,

you know, north korea had been selling off stocks. and so a lot of these, you know, um, a lot of the ammunition in the early shipments were olds and did not work well, did not have great, great performance. and i think anecdotal evidence is showing now that their performance is much better and that, that, you know, more than likely that these are new, you produced a new initiatives that are going into russia. um, you know, north korea has really emphasized in recent months a revival of its defense industries and waste in conjunction and, you know, visiting munitions factories, for instance, doing quality control. like i said, there's been rumors of, you know, russian technologies, russian and engineers and some of those factors as well, helping trying to improve performance, the quality over time. so you know what, what russia is getting now from the north. koreans is much better than what it was

getting in the early days. and we've seen even evidence of, you know, some of the missile north korean missiles that have been used on the battlefields in ukraine are also, you know, newly produced within the past year. so, you know, this isn't just old stocks and overtime the performance of this has improved. mm hm . um, we have one question here. when you come in our chat on youtube, will there be closer ties as an military alliance between north korea and russia? and maybe we can interpret it as a, as a form on military alliance. do you think that is going to come out of this visit? j? gosh. it's a lot to me to put in actually has already announced that there will be a strategic partnership agreement signed. we expect this agreements to be science tomorrow during the main day offers the visits to north korea and,

and this will be an upgrade to the relations. however, we don't know yet what is going to be in the treaty. and it's, it's, it's not on the kids, and i think we need to remember that the, so that's enough. korea has been a very, in a very close alliance with the soviet union for many years. and by then their and their treaty and frank on, on friendship, even included a close on on how to isaac military assistance in case one of the sides was to be invaded. so this was a very close military alliance that was even qualified in the treaties. and however, neither after the collapse of the soviet union, these ties between russia and north korea has cooled off. and, and though we haven't seen this degree of cooperation and now with this

uh, ukraine, we're ongoing. we see the revival and the accordingly we there will be apparently a new agreement on the strategic partnership signed and, and we will see what it includes. but ever since last years, as conjunctions to visit russia, there has been a range of delegations between visiting between the 2 countries on many issues the, as jenny mentioned before, it's not only and military cooperation officially. this is even puts in the back of the, of the talks, but we have the economic talks on discussions on cultural ties on to or is themselves. and this is something we will definitely be observing tomorrow. jenny, when you come, also ask if so if there were to be a form in military alliance, will china stay neutral if it comes to that point?

or could we see what's often being talked about as a strategic triangle between russia, north korea and china as well? i think we have to be careful about how we use the word alliance. so even if, you know, even if a treaty is signed tomorrow, that upgrades the cooperation between, you know, russia in north korea and it's not going to be on the lines the way that, for instance, the us in south korea is an alliance. it's not going to have like a, you know, joint command, the military and it's not going to have that level of integration of, you know, i think there's some concerns of, you know, whether again it goes back to the, the, the, as douglas as the, the clause where there was automatic military assistance that would go back and forth in case of conflict. but even then, um, you know, north korea and china have a, a similar, you know,

friendship treating that includes that. and even that treaty itself, the chinese upside in the past. um, you know, if not, if the us start the conflict they will definitely help. as north korea started the conflict they wouldn't. so you know, this isn't, this isn't the kind of iron clad the lions that you see on the us side of the equation. but it would be, you know, it would be a partnership, it would be, you know, greater cooperation than what we've seen in the past. it would upgrade. and what we've seen, you know, since the soviet union, since the fall of the soviet union. so you know what, how china react to that. you know, i see that there's not going to be a tri lateral military alliance between these country. it's like i said, they have, you know, trying to rush a very different interest in a very different world at the moment, even though they do have some mutual understanding of the threats in the world around them and, and the role that the us plays in that yeah,

at maybe docking onto that. someone thomas is asking if it's possible that china is sending legal aid to russia through north korea to avoid sanctions. it's jenny. so maybe if you have it. oh yeah. you know i, i don't, i don't think so. it kind of doesn't have to do that. um, certainly, uh, the military a, but there has been evidence that, that right, the china is, you know, providing a rush or with military assistance. they're doing it quietly, but they, they're not doing it through a 3rd party and they certainly don't need north korea to do that. me and another one coming in for you. jenny mouse, the german asked, do you think it's in kim's interest to have more north korean workers and russians? could that be part of the talks? oh, absolutely. you know there's a, that was one of the point.