Russia and North Korea are strengthening their ties—a development that has sparked global concern against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine. The Russian-North Korean partnership is not new; since the beginning of Russia’s invasion, North Korea has reportedly supplied military goods worth up to $5.5 billion to Russia. However, reports of North Korean soldiers being sent to Russia, potentially even to the front lines in Ukraine, mark a new peak in this autocratic alliance.

What lies behind this military partnership? What geopolitical interests are being pursued by Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin? To what extent does the deployment of North Korean troops shift the dynamics of Russia's war against Ukraine? And what strategies are available to the West to counter this alliance?

These and other questions are the focus of this discussion with guests Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Frank, Director of the European Centre for North Korean Studies and Professor of East Asian Economy and Society at the University of Vienna, and Dr. Tereza Novotná, researcher at the Center for European Integration at Freie Universität Berlin.

Click HERE to watch the full discussion on YouTube (in German).