The Chinese president has arrived in North Korea. The world is watching

In the absurdist 2004 political satire Team America, North Korea’s then leader sings a solo. Kim Jong-il, in marionette puppet form, performs I’m So Ronery.

The world, he laments, doesn’t appreciate his brilliance, which makes him so lonely. But while it must be one of the silliest movies ever made, its timing was spot on.

The movie’s release marked the end of an intense phase of multinational diplomacy designed to end North Korea’s nuclear program.

George W. Bush called Kim a “tyrant” for his intransigence. Kim’s regime returned the favour by calling Bush a “political idiot”.

Pyongyang was, indeed, entering a long season of international isolation. Kim went all out to build nuclear weaponry and missiles. Even North Korea’s friendly neighbour, China, disapproved of its rogue nuclear efforts.

International sanctions hurt, but most of North Korea’s economic pain was self-imposed because its political isolation was complemented by its juche policy of economic self-reliance, which has kept most of the population in a state of perpetual hunger.

This is tragically quixotic; look south and witness the flourishing of South Korea, one of the wealthiest and freest nations in the world.

You might have noticed that the only fat person you ever see in photos from North Korea is the ruler, who, today, is Kim’s son, Kim Jong-un, who took power in 2011.

Undeterred, Kim Jnr pursued the regime’s nuclear ambition with renewed energy, all the while issuing blood-curdling threats to rain fire on America and its “running dog”, South Korea.

US then-president Barack Obama reacted with a policy called “strategic patience”, a euphemism for strategic idleness.

Young Kim’s nuclear success was spectacular. It burst upon the world in late 2017 with North Korea’s sixth atomic weapons test, its most powerful yet, accompanied by its first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile and claims that it had developed a thermonuclear bomb.

Alarmed, Donald Trump declared a campaign of “maximum pressure” on the country through extra sanctions. This brought the North Koreans briefly out of their isolation and back to the negotiating table.

Sensationally, Trump decided he’d be the first US president to meet the enemy leader since the country’s establishment by young Kim’s grandfather in 1948.

Confident in his personal power to make a deal, Trump met Kim three times in 2018-19 in an effort to talk him out of his nukes.

The US president had zero success other than exchanging what he called “love letters” with Kim: “We fell in love. No, really. He wrote me beautiful letters.”

It worked for Kim, however. He pursued his nuclear missiles program full bore while Trump largely gave up on the problem as too hard. Pyongyang was, once again, lonely, but increasingly dangerous.

It was Russia’s Vladimir Putin who brought a spectacular end to this phase of North Korean isolation. Struggling with his war on Ukraine, a desperate Putin turned to North Korea for help.

Putin had not visited Pyongyang for 24 years. But, in his hour of need, he travelled to meet Kim in 2024. They signed a mutual defence treaty and the favours flowed. In both directions.

Kim has sent an astonishing 15 million artillery shells to Russia for use against Ukraine, according to reported estimates by South Korea’s intelligence services. Even more astonishing is that Kim dispatched troops to help Putin kill Ukrainians.

It was an incongruous sight to see an estimated 21,000 North Koreans on a battlefield between two warring Slavic armies. About 60,000 of the North Koreans were wounded or died, according to the Seoul-based think tank, the Institute for National Security Strategy.

And what did Putin send Kim in return? The same institute estimates that North Korea’s total revenue, in cash but mostly in kind, from military ties with Russia at between $US7.7 billion and $US14.4 billion ($10 billion to $20 billion). This included fuel, weapons and food but also advanced Russian nuclear and missile technology.

This infusion of Russian aid has not helped most North Koreans but reportedly has boosted the bleak capital, Pyongyang, home to the country’s elite, in striking ways.

“Chinese electric vehicles whiz through the streets,” reports The Wall Street Journal. “Pyongyang has new pet stores, an internet-gaming cafe and car dealerships selling BMWs. Kim has initiated a nationwide construction boom. Last year, North Korea built 10,000 new homes in Pyongyang – more than either Los Angeles or Chicago.”

The journal calls it “the world’s most unlikely growth story”. South Korea estimates that the North’s economy grew by almost 4 per cent last year, its fastest in eight years.

A researcher at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Olena Guseinova, told NK News that Kim’s co-operation with Moscow “has helped Pyongyang break out of overwhelming isolation, enhanced the regime’s prestige, and given access to valuable military exchanges”.

Following Putin, others have visited Pyongyang. But the most consequential visitor to Pyongyang arrived on Monday. Chinese President Xi Jinping is in North Korea for his first visit in seven years. It’s an indisputable end to the country’s isolation phase.

Why? Xi is concerned that Kim is drawing too close to Putin, by all accounts, and wants to assert China’s sphere of influence by increasing co-operation with Kim.

Just in case Xi plans to repeat China’s earlier lectures for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program, Kim has sent a few emphatic signals in the past three days. First, he made a well-publicised visit to one of his nuclear enrichment facilities.

Second, he visited one of his factories turning out ballistic and cruise missiles. Third, he announced a 250 per cent increase in planned missile output. Fourth, he sent his sister, Kim Yo-jong, to give a speech declaring that “beefing up the nuclear war deterrent” was an “irreversible final conclusion to be carried out unconditionally”.

While Trump claims to be ridding Iran of its nuclear potential, he’s been remarkably zen about a US enemy which has 60 nuclear warheads already and is capable of making 30 more, according to a new estimate by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Rumours abound suggesting that Trump plans to meet Kim soon. If so, the American will find an emboldened North Korean leader who can now claim vindication for his father’s ambitions for nuclear status and the respectful attention of some of the world’s great capitals.

As the puppet version of Kim Jong-il sang two decades ago: “When I change the world, maybe they’ll notice me.”

Peter Hartcher is both international and political editor. His political column appears on Saturdays.

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