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A lot happens every day. Alliances shift, leaders change, and conflicts erupt. With In Brief, we’ll help you make sense of it all. Each week, experts will dig deep on a single issue happening in the world to help you better understand it.***Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un took a rare trip beyond his country’s borders to Russia, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The visit stoked fears that there could be increased weapons and technology transfers between the two hostile nations and that North Korea could provide Russia with badly needed munitions for its war in Ukraine. We asked three experts to analyze how much of a threat this partnership could pose to Western nations and how it could develop.Read more below. Jenny Town Senior Fellow, Stimson Center & Director, 38 NorthRussia and North Korea didn’t need a summit to broker an arms deal. What the Putin-Kim summit appeared to signal, though, is that Russia sees cultivating deeper military cooperation with North Korea firmly in its national interest, regardless of sanctions or international community responses. This is a notable shift and one that is likely to result in Pyongyang’s ability to accelerate the achievement of key technologies such as rockets and military satellites and to improve its conventional capabilities as well, not just for its own security, but also as Moscow’s partner in broader political and military competition against the West. How formidable this partnership will be is yet to be seen but underscores the hardening of security blocs and growing insecurity in the region. Ankit Panda Stanton Senior Fellow Nuclear Policy Program Carnegie Endowment for International PeaceRussia and North Korea have much to gain from each other at this particular geopolitical moment, but their rapprochement is largely based on a transactional logic. As a result, the