Kim Jong Un takes his relationship with Putin — and maybe his nuclear program — to a new level

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Putin also said that Russia had not ruled out developing military and technical cooperation with North Korea under the deal. U.S. officials have told NBC News that in exchange for military assistance in Ukraine, Russia might provide North Korea with the technology it needs to evade missile defenses or launch a nuclear missile from a submarine. The U.S. and its allies condemned the visit to North Korea by Putin, who continued his travels Thursday in Vietnam. “This should concern any country that cares about maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, abiding by U.N. Security Council resolutions, and supporting the people of Ukraine,” a spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council told NBC News on Wednesday. South Korea and Japan also expressed concern about the impact of such military-technical cooperation on regional security. Their response to the deepening Russia-North Korea relationship could also have implications outside the region: On Thursday, South Korea’s presidential office said it was considering a change in policy that would allow for the provision of lethal military aid to Ukraine. The agreement between Russia and North Korea says that if either country is invaded or pushed into a state of war, the other must deploy “all means at its disposal without delay” to provide “military and other assistance,” raising the possibility that a U.S. strike on North Korea could draw a Russian response. But what the language means exactly is unclear, Cha said. “I think what it really means right now is material assistance, as North Korea is now providing to Russia and as Russia is most likely providing to North Korea, in the form of military technology,” he said. As for whether the two countries would actually go to war for each other, that is hard to say and “would depend on the circumstances,” he said. More immediately, Putin’s visit to Pyongyang also underscores the failure of international efforts to stop North Korea’s nuclear advances, said John Delury, a China and North Korea expert at Yonsei University in Seoul. “The United States and the Biden administration need to come to grips with the fact that North Korea policy is not working and hasn’t been working for a very long time,” he said. “Obviously, we know the North Korean nuclear and missile programs have been moving ahead in leaps and bounds despite all the sanctions,” Delury continued. “And now you’re seeing North Korea make these strategic moves.”