When the world's at stake,
go beyond the headlines.

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.***This weekend, Russia signed into law a strategic partnership agreement with North Korea that includes a mutual defense provision and strengthens security ties between the two countries. Meanwhile, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, North Korea has sent at least 11,000 troops to Russia to fight against Ukrainian soldiers in Russia’s Kursk region, potentially in exchange for a nuclear technology transfer. China, too, has maintained close ties with Pyongyang, even as the country’s actions have become increasingly belligerent. We asked three experts to tell us more about how North Korea’s strongest allies — Russia and China — are enabling it to become a serious global threat.Read more below.Jenny Town Senior Fellow, Stimson Center Director, Korea Program and 38 NorthNaturally, there are growing concerns about how expanding Russian-North Korean military cooperation may improve Pyongyang’s weapons of mass destruction programs, its conventional capabilities, and now, potentially even its understanding of modern warfighting. These are all valid concerns with serious implications for U.S. and South Korean defenses especially.However, the value of increased political and economic cooperation for North Korea should not be underestimated. In recent years, both China and Russia have effectively blocked the international community from imposing new punitive measures on Pyongyang for its persistent violations of international law while increasing economic cooperation to varying degrees. This has greatly diminished the long-standing proposition that Pyongyang must choose between “guns and butter” to increase its legitimacy.The signing of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty between Russia and North Korea has elevated Pyongyang’s global standing, while giving both countries a seemingly legal basis for cooperating on sanctioned