Historically one of the most isolated nations on earth, North Korea now is arguably a key player in two wars, Ukraine and Israel, and is reaping military, economic and diplomatic benefits from those conflicts. South Korea says the North has sent more than a million artillery shells to Russia to help Vladimir Putin in his war on Ukraine in hopes that Moscow, in return, will transfer high technology for the North's military and its missile and satellite programs. In September, Kim Jong Un traveled to Russia for a summit with Putin and the two countries tout their growing partnership. In the Middle East, Hamas fighters reportedly used North Korean weapons in their assault on Israel.

In this month’s Russia Brief, Jill Dougherty talks with one of the world's top experts on North Korea, Victor Cha, Distinguished University Professor and D.S. Song-KF Chair in the School of Foreign Service and the Department of Government at Georgetown University. A former Director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council, he is currently Senior Vice President for the Asia and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, and is the author of several books, including his newest: Korea: A New History of South and North (Yale, 2023).

The Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies (CERES) would like to thank the Carnegie Corporation of New York for generous support of our programming.

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