Putin’s trip to North Korea underscores relationship – but China will be watching
Anytime President Vladimir Putin leaves Russia, it is significant because he rarely gets out.
But this trip – visiting the secretive and closed-off country of North Korea for the first time in 24 years – underscores just how important the relationship between these countries has become.
Russia and North Korea have signed a strategic partnership to upgrade their relationship.
While it’s light on detail, this deal will be closely watched in Asia, especially here in China.
China shares a long border with North Korea. It has been the hermit kingdom’s main supporter and is responsible for 90% of North Korea’s trade.
Chinese President Xi Jinping also has a strong relationship with Russia, buying its oil and gas and sending so-called “dual use” machinery and semi-conductors to Russia, which the West says Russia uses in its war in Ukraine.
China does not want to see Russia muscling in on its traditional area of influence in North Korea.
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Just yesterday, senior officials from China and South Korea held talks in Seoul, where China said “maintaining peace and stability on the peninsula is in the common interest of all parties”.
However, Chinese president Xi Jinping does agree with Russia and North Korea on one point, that there should be a new world order, a “multi-polar” world, rather than the US-dominated international system.
The problem is, China wants to be at the centre of this alternative order and seen as a responsible global leader.
Pic: AP
It risks reputational damage if the multi-polar bloc appears to be largely comprised of countries the West regards as pariah states, like Russia, North Korea, and Iran.
South Korea is also anxious about Putin’s trip to Pyongyang.
It could embolden North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, to have a strongman by his side at a time when tension on the Korean Peninsula is high.
Pic: Reuters
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Putin will delight in the disquiet his visit is causing
Both North and South Korea have stepped up their campaigns of cross-border harassment in recent weeks.
The North has been sending balloons with rubbish across the border, and activists in the South have sent balloons with propaganda leaflets.
Putin next heads to Vietnam. A different set of issues there.
Vietnam is emblematic of a south-east Asian country trying to stay close to the US, Russia, and China. It doesn’t want to be forced to make a choice.
But in this fractured international environment, divided between the West and developing countries of the “Global South”, Vietnam and its neighbour may find that eventually they will have to pick a side.
The cardinals have arrived, the finishing touches are being made; Vatican City is preparing for an election like no other.
On Wednesday, the papal conclave begins and many visitors to St Peter’s Square already have a clear view on what they would like the outcome to be.
“I want a liberal pope,” says Joyce who has travelled to Rome from the US.
“My number one is Pierbattista Pizzaballa,” says blogger Teodorita Giovannella referencing the 60-year-old Italian cardinal.
Rome resident Michele Rapinesi thinks the next pope will be the Vatican’s secretary of state, Pietro Parolin, who was Pope Francis’ number two.
Joyce has travelled all the way to Rome from the US
Michele Rapinesi speaks to Siobhan Robbins
Although the job of selecting the next pontiff lies with 133 cardinal electors, Ms Giovannella and Mr Rapinesi are among 75,000 Italians playing an online game trying to predict who they’ll pick.
Fantapapa is a similar format to fantasy football, but teams are made up of prospective pontiffs.
Ms Giovannella has chosen three popular Italians as her favourites: Cardinals Pizzaballa, Zuppi and Parolin.
After 47 years she wants an Italian pope but believes an Asian or African would be a good “plot twist”.
Despite the growing speculation and excitement, for the cardinal electors the papal conclave is the serious and sombre process of choosing the next leader of the Catholic Church and its 1.4 billion followers.
Teodorita Giovannella is hoping the next pope will be a fellow Italian
To keep the vote secret, they are locked in the Sistine Chapel which has been swept for hidden cameras, recording equipment and bugs.
The windows are covered to keep the outside world out and to stop drones from spying.
Mobile phones are banned and signal jammers have been installed to help stop any information being leaked.
Ballots are burned after they are cast and a plume of coloured smoke shows people if a new pope has been chosen.
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Preparations inside the Sistine Chapel
The cardinal who is elected will become one of the most powerful men in the world and will set the course for the Catholic Church for years to come, making decisions which will affect the lives of millions of people worldwide.
Pope Francis’ 12-year reign pulled the church in a more progressive direction.
His fight for migrants and climate change made him a muse for Roman street artist Mauro Pallotta.
He met him five times and painted more than 30 pictures of him, celebrating his life on the walls of Rome.
Siobhan Robbins with Rome street artist Mauro Pallotta
One of Mr Pallotta’s artworks of Pope Francis
One shows Francis with a catapult shooting out hearts.
“It depicts the strong love he had for people,” Mr Pallotta explains.
In another, he wears a cape and is depicted as a superhero.
“I hope the new pope continues the way of Pope Francis and remembers the poor people of the world,” he says.
Whether the next pontiff is another pope of the people, a progressive or conservative will soon be decided by the cardinals.
Their choice will determine if the Catholic Church continues down the route set by Francis or takes a different path.
Israel has approved a plan to capture all of the Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified length of time, Israeli officials say.
According to Reuters, the plan includes distributing aid, though supplies will not be let in yet.
The Israeli official told the agency that the newly approved offensive plan would move Gaza’s civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into Hamas’s hands.
On Sunday, the United Nations rejected what it said was a new plan for aid to be distributed in what it described as Israeli hubs.
Israeli cabinet ministers approved plans for the new offensive on Monday morning, hours after it was announced that tens of thousands of reserve soldiers are being called up.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far failed to achieve his goal of destroying Hamas or returning all the hostages, despite more than a year of brutal war in Gaza.
Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza. Pic: AP
Officials say the plan will help with these war aims but it would also push hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to southern Gaza, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis.
They said the plan included the “capturing of the strip and the holding of territories”.
It would also try to prevent Hamas from distributing humanitarian aid, which Israel says strengthens the group’s rule in Gaza.
The UN rejected the plan, saying it would leave large parts of the population, including the most vulnerable, without supplies.
It said it “appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy”.
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IDF reservists call for end to war in Gaza
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More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since the IDF launched its ground offensive in the densely-populated territory, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
It followed the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
A fragile ceasefire that saw a pause in the fighting and the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners collapsed earlier this year.
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