North Korea is fully backing Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, support that could even extend to providing ammunition for Moscow’s war effort, and this development has provided the two sides a basis for strengthening bilateral ties in ways that could alter the balance of power on the Korean Peninsula.

In particular, the war in Ukraine could allow Moscow and Pyongyang to pick up on the lost momentum of the April 2019 summit between leaders Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin after years of limited ties due to the pandemic.

The exact impact of this