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.
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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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.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate against the Houthis and their Iranian “masters” after the group launched a missile attack on the country’s main international airport.
A missile fired by the group from Yemen landed near Ben Gurion Airport, causing panic among passengers in the terminal building.
“Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran,” Mr Netanyahu wrote on X. “Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.”
Israeli police officers investigate the missile crater. Pic: Reuters
The missile impact left a plume of smoke and briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at the airport. Some international carriers have cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv for several days.
Four people were lightly wounded, paramedic service Magen David Adom said.
Air raid sirens went off across Israel and footage showed passengers yelling and rushing for cover.
The attack came hours before senior Israeli cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, and as the army began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation in the enclave.
Houthi military spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport.
Iran’s defence minister later told a state TV broadcaster that if the country was attacked by the US or Israel, it would target their bases, interests and forces where necessary.
Israel’s military said several attempts to intercept the missile were unsuccessful.
Air, road and rail traffic were halted after the attack, police said, though it resumed around an hour later.
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Yemen’s Houthis have been firing missiles at Israel since its war with Hamas in Gaza began on 7 October 2023, and while most have been intercepted, some have penetrated the country’s missile defence systems and caused damage.
Israel has previously struck the group in Yemen in retaliation and the US and UK have also launched strikes after the Houthis began attacking international shipping, saying it was in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas.
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