Russia-DPRK Relations: Implications for the UNSC’s Mandate

The burgeoning military cooperation between Russia and the DPRK poses a significant challenge to global security. The simplified characterization of the alleged arms deal as a product of converging interests between old friends overlooks the fundamental importance of geo-political dynamics and both states’ diplomatic pivot away from the liberal West as a cause for re-evaluating their bilateral relations.

This issue brief argues that regardless of whether the arms deal sustains momentum beyond the Ukraine war, strengthened DPRK-Russo relations challenge the UN Security Council as the principal theater for engagement on the North Korean nuclear issue and threaten to accelerate the widening rift between liberal and autocratic spheres of influence.

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