Analysts say Moscow's actions have gifted North Korea a 'perfect storm' of conditions under which to ramp up its nuclear weapons program.
If North Korea was looking for another excuse to forge ahead with its nuclear weapons program, it just found one in Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Divided over Ukraine, the international community will likely have little appetite for sanctions on the hermit kingdom; indeed, even unified condemnation of a recent North Korean ICBM test remains elusive. What's more, the boycott of Russian oil and gas could even open the door to cut-price energy deals between Pyongyang and Moscow -- ideological allies whose friendship harks back to the Korean war of the 1950s.
Ukraine now finds itself under brutal attack from the very same country that signed the deal to protect its sovereignty -- one that now repeatedly refers to its nuclear arsenal to warn the West off intervention.Most experts -- and most likely Pyongyang too -- think not.Pyongyang regularly uses the experiences of Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gaddafi, the former leaders of Iraq and Libya, to justify its nuclear program, both to its own people and the world.
"There are some interesting, perhaps unintended consequences for the Western response against Russia in particular, which is that a Russia that has been completely isolated from the global economy and put under tremendous sanctions pressure. I think it has very few incentives to enforce sanctions against North Korea," said Ankit Panda, a senior fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
"I think that Russia is going to provide more economic support and energy support to North Korea," said Ramon Pacheco Pardo, the KF-VUB Korea chair at the Institute for European Studies of Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
North Korea fires likely submarine-launched ballistic missile, South Korea saysNorth Korea fired a ballistic missile from a submarine on Saturday, South Korea said just before inauguration of a South Korean president..
Read more »
South Korea: North Korea test-fired missile from submarineNorth Korea flight-tested a ballistic missile that was likely fired from a submarine on Saturday, South Korea's military said, continuing a provocative streak in weapons demonstrations that may culminate with a nuclear test in the coming weeks or months.
Read more »
South Korea's next leader faces escalating North Korean nuke threatDuring his election campaign, South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk Yeol had tough words for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying he would teach his rival some manners and sternly deal with his provocative missile tests with a strengthened alliance with the United States.
Read more »
North Carolina officers kill man setting cars ablaze near police stationThe confrontation began after an officer observed a man lighting vehicles on fire in a parking lot near a district station
Read more »
South Korea's next leader faces escalating North Korean nuke threatDuring his election campaign, South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk Yeol had tough words for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying he would teach his rival some manners and sternly deal with his provocative missile tests with a strengthened alliance with the United States.
Read more »