Although some have described the relationship between Russia and North Korea as one of mutual trust, the real situation is more that the two countries use each other as leverage, a byproduct of the northeast Asian geopolitics, argued an expert.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that he looked to Russia to bringing North Korea back to the negotiating table, reported an unspecified Russian media outlet.
So when Russia raised objections to the UN’s denouncement of North Korea’s April 16 missile tests, Tillerson's remark might have proved right in a sense - Russia has special influence on North Korea, wrote Fang Liang, a contributor to news portal The Paper.
But the influence couldn’t stem from trade, since Russia accounts for 2 percent of North Korea’s foreign trade, Fang pointed out. Russia’s true advantage lies in that it has N. Korea supreme leader Kim Jong-un’s trust, claimed some Russian experts.
Since 2000, especially after Kim Jong-un took power, the two countries have frequently interacted. It means that Russia’s influence with the country shouldn’t be neglected. So the trust claimed by Russian experts is not utterly unsubstantiated, Fang wrote.
Nevertheless, the Russia-North Korean relationship has never gone beyond a model of 'mutual help,' under which each sees the other as leverage, as there has never been substantive interest to bind them, contended Fang.
Russia wants to use its influence with N. Korea to increase its leverage in the game of geopolitical interest. In other words, it wants to prevent the US from exercising direct geopolitical pressure on itself. N. Korea, for its part, enjoys limited protection provided by Russia on certain international issues, such as the UN’s April 19 denouncement.
The reason why it’s limited is that Russia still endorses denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Every time the country has launched a nuclear test, Putin supported sanctions. But in such cases, Russia usually delays the voting process of sanctions, a posture intended for N. Korea.
And under the current complicated circumstances on the peninsula, one more channel for communication is good for everyone. That’s why Russia is in the game and China and America are happy to see Russia’s influence with N. Korea, the contributor concluded.
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