Putin takes Kim for a ride after signing anti-West military pact

Vladimir Putin has driven Kim Jung-un around in a “Russian Rolls Royce” after signing a military pact in a Soviet-style meeting of dictators.

Videos released by Russian media showed Putin climbing into the driver’s seat of the black Aurus limousine that he had just gifted the North Korean leader.

He then beckoned Kim to join him in the front, before pulling off for a drive along the smooth roads that sweep past the manicured lawns of the Kumsusan state residence in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.

Footage showed Kim smiling and pointing at the dashboard and the Russian president gesticulating as he drove.

Earlier, the leaders held two hours of talks at Kim’s residence before signing the military agreement that positions Russia and North Korea at the centre of an anti-West axis.

The Russian president said the “breakthrough document” raised relations “to a new level”.

“It provides for the provision of mutual assistance in the event of aggression against one of the parties to this agreement,” he said.

It was not clear what kind of assistance the deal involved.

The pact came in the middle of a carefully choreographed state visit with strong echoes of Soviet history.

Indeed, Kim said Moscow and Pyongyang’s “fiery friendship” is now even closer than during Soviet times.

This was Putin’s first visit to North Korea since 2000, a trip that highlights the importance he places on North Korea as an ally against the United States.

The new Russia-North Korea “comprehensive strategic agreement” upgrades a “friendship” deal he had signed with Kim’s dictator father in 2001.

Putin flew into Pyongyang before dawn on Wednesday after an eight-hour flight from Moscow, six time zones behind North Korea.

The 71-year-old looked weary listening to translations during the talks. One video caught him playing with a microphone and momentarily closing his eyes, his head drooping slightly.

Kim had greeted Putin earlier in the day in central Pyongyang on a red carpet laid out in front of thousands of cheering schoolchildren.

The heavily orchestrated greeting was held in a square ringed by heavy Soviet-style buildings and adorned with Russian and North Korean flags and portraits of the two men.

A slogan emblazoned across one of the buildings said: “North Korean-Russian friendship will be eternal”.

The two men shook hands and hugged as a brass military band played.

Putin took a high-powered delegation to Pyongyang, including five government ministers and several officials charged with running logistics for his war in Ukraine.

Footage showed them lining up as the Russian president introduced them briefly to Kim, who shook their hands and looked at them indifferently.

Kim and Putin then stood as the band started up again, dozens of soldiers goose-stepped past in a swift military parade and the school children released colourful balloons into the air.

Other videos showed rows of North Korean generals obediently clapping and waving flags, with the two leaders standing in the back of an open-topped Mercedes limousine lapping up the applause.

Later, Kim gifted Putin various paintings of the Russian leader, while Putin gave the North Korean leader a tea set, an admiral’s dagger and the Aurus limousine.

Russia started producing the Aurus car in 2018 as its answer to the Rolls Royce. Each has a retail price of around £250,000 and only 115 have reportedly been sold.

Putin then headed to a gala concert with Kim where he received thunderous applause from unsmiling grey-suited North Korean bureaucrats and teenagers all dressed in red t-shirts and red baseball caps.

Russian journalists have reported that they were flown to North Korea 12 hours ahead of the meeting and then given a tour of Pyongyang as it prepared for Putin’s arrival.

They were told that 400 portraits of Putin had been hung around the city to commemorate the first visit by an international leader since Xi Jinping, the president of China, visited in 2019.

When a Russian journalist asked why there were no people on the streets, one of the North Korean minders replied: “It’s just very hot.”

The journalists also reported that they were told to “write that North Korea is a normal country” and that “America controls the internet”.

Putin was due to dine with Kim at a state banquet and listen to a concert before arriving in Communist-run Vietnam for a two-day visit, which will focus on “trade and economic, scientific, technological and humanitarian areas”.

It will be Putin’s fifth overseas trip since he won a presidential election in March, highlighting his emphasis on building up international relations to bolster Russia’s position around its war in Ukraine.

At their meeting, Putin thanked Kim for sending weapons to Russia and confirmed that the Kremlin was supplying technical support to North Korea - which Western analysts have said is used to accelerate their spy satellite and ballistic missile programmes.

“We highly appreciate your consistent and unwavering support for Russian policy, including in the Ukrainian direction,” said Putin.

North Korea has become a vital arms supplier for the Kremlin since Kim visited Russia last year, sending 5 million artillery shells and dozens of missiles to bolster the forces against Ukraine.

Artyom Lukin, of Russia’s Far Eastern Federal University, said that, depending on the exact wording of the pact, it could be a dramatic shift in the entire strategic situation in north-east Asia.

He said if Russia provides Pyongyang with security guarantees, “then [North Korea] becomes an analogue of Belarus, Russia’s main ally in Eastern Europe.”

“It will be an open challenge to the system of US-centric alliances in north-east  Asia. And, of course, it will be a huge problem for Seoul and Tokyo.”