North Korea is adept at grabbing attention through both rhetoric and weaponry. On Friday it announced that it had launched its first “tactical nuclear attack submarine”, though the South Korean military said it did not appear to be operational. The most important development of recent days, however, is the report that Kim Jong-un will soon visit Russia, to discuss weapons sales with Vladimir Putin. Moscow has also proposed trilateral naval drills with China. An old but never easy three-way relationship is picking up again.
Mr Kim’s grandfather rose to power thanks to the Soviet Union’s support; China’s close but fraught relationship with its neighbour is longstanding. Yet from 2006, Moscow and Beijing were sufficiently concerned about Pyongyang’s weapons programme to support a series of UN security council sanctions, even as their differences with the west on other matters mushroomed. Last year, however, they blocked a US-drafted resolution to tighten sanctions.
