Putin does Pyongyang

Lavish pomp but little substance to Kremlin chief’s 24-hour state visit to North Korea

The arrival of Vladimir Putin’s plane at Pyongyang’s Sunan Airport in the early hours of Wednesday marked an important diplomatic boost for Kim Jong Un’s terminally isolated dictatorship, something underscored by Kim’s decision to greet Putin in person upon his arrival, despite it being 3am local time.

For Putin, visiting North Korea has never been a priority, despite the decades of close ties Moscow and Pyongyang have enjoyed, and it’s highly unlikely he would have do so at all, were Russia not so internationally isolated and in dire need of North Korean munitions.

As it is, despite his last visit to the Hermit Kingdom being 24 years ago, Putin will be in North Korea for less than 24 hours, having arrived later than planned from the city of Yakutsk in Russia’s Far East. However, North Korea’s legendary penchant for ceremony and pageantry has been duly deployed despite the short time frame for the state visit, with portraits of Putin appearing all over Pyongyang, and a welcome ceremony featuring thousands of people held on the capital’s Kim Il Sung Square.