North Korea is arming Russia and threatening war with South Korea

If North Korea’s state news agency is to be believed, Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, will soon visit the hermit kingdom for the first time in over 20 years. The two countries are becoming more friendly, which is helping Russia in its war on Ukraine and is emboldening the North Korean regime. It comes at a time when Kim Jong Un, the country’s hereditary dictator, is embarking on a new round of bellicosity towards South Korea. Some serious observers think that Mr Kim means to launch some kind of military provocation against the South soon. Politicians in Seoul, South Korea’s capital, promise a ferocious response. Given the North’s nuclear weapons, any kind of war talk raises jitters throughout the region.