China Uneasy With Kim Jong Un’s Alliance With Putin

Concerns over the growing alliance between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un have escalated recently, with reports suggesting that North Korea has deployed thousands of troops to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In the past year, Kim has shown clear preference for Putin over Xi, meeting with Putin twice while avoiding Xi since 2019. I Photo: Presidential Executive Office of Russia

This tension intensified when North Korea fired a banned intercontinental missile on last week — marking its longest recorded flight — following weeks of aggressive rhetoric against Seoul, Laura Bicker reported for BBC News.

“China seeks a relationship with North Korea that it can reasonably control,” says Christopher Green, an analyst with the International Crisis Group. “But North Korea’s relationship with Russia threatens to undermine that balance.”

If Chinese leader Xi Jinping cannot influence the Putin-Kim partnership to suit his interests, China risks becoming entangled in the conflict. China, the senior partner in this triad, aspires to lead a stable new world order — a goal complicated when one ally is at war in Europe, and the other is allegedly aiding the invasion.

“China is unhappy with the direction things are heading,” Green adds, “but they are trying to keep their discontent under wraps.”

Now, Beijing faces frustration as Kim's diplomatic priorities seem focused elsewhere, in the words of sociologist Aidan Foster-Carter, with Kim’s “lips ‘kissing elsewhere.’”

“North Korea has consistently been a difficult ally for both Russia and China. They take as much as they can and then do what they like,” analysts note.

In the past year, Kim has shown clear preference for Putin over Xi, meeting with Putin twice while avoiding Xi since 2019. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has drawn the two isolated leaders closer. Putin seeks further support for his war, while Kim aims to strengthen his regime through alliances and international attention.