Nataliya Butyrska, Associate Senior Fellow at the New Europe Center, in a new analytical material for Mirror of the Week explains how participation in Russia’s war against Ukraine is transforming North Korea — from the internal consolidation of Kim Jong-un’s power to the strengthening of its international positions.

The author analyses recent constitutional changes in North Korea that entrench the “new era of Kim Jong-un”: the expansion of his powers, the official abandonment of the “peaceful reunification” policy, and the enshrining of the principle of an automatic nuclear strike in response to any threat to the country’s leadership.

Particular attention is paid to how the military alliance with Moscow 🇷🇺 provides Pyongyang with new opportunities for foreign policy manoeuvre and domestic mobilisation — and why the democratic world continues to underestimate this shared threat.

“Any attempts to resolve the North Korea problem in isolation from the broader context of Russian aggression against Ukraine, and without accounting for the deepening of their military alliance, effectively condemn the question of peace and denuclearisation on the Korean Peninsula to further fruitless going around in circles”, emphasises Nataliya Butyrska.

Read more via the link here (in Ukrainian).