Putin and Kim Jong Un, partners in crime

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un might have been miffed of late at Chinese President Xi Jinping. Beijing — Pyongyang’s biggest benefactor in the post–Cold War era — has been stingy, at least compared to warring Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin invited Kim to the Vostochny Cosmodrome last fall and — in blithe violation of multiple UN Security Resolutions banning North Korea’s ballistic missiles development that Putin himself had previously endorsed — pledged support for Pyongyang’s ballistic missile-borne satellite launch. Xi has yet to accord Kim an in-person meeting in nearly five years.

But Kim knows that his blooming bromance with Putin has Beijing’s attention.

In February, Putin sent Kim a free luxury Russian limousine, yet another violation of the UN ban on luxury goods transfer. The next month, Kim Yo Jong, the First Sister of North Korea, announced her brother had recently ridden in the limo and that its special functions were “perfect.” The gift was “clear proof,” she intoned, that the two countries’ friendship was “developing in a comprehensive way on a new high stage.”

For Putin, one automobile for millions of munitions is a good deal. According to the U.S., Kim Jong Un has sent Russia at least 10,000 containers filled with weapons, and North Korean missiles have been used multiple times in Ukraine. Putin likely has promised Kim much more, including help with highly sensitive military technology. The Russian strongman has found in Kim, some 30 years his junior, a strategic partner in waging war and making a mockery of international norms.

Last month, Moscow even assumed the role of Pyongyang’s protector and legal defender. Russia shut down a multinational UN committee that has meticulously monitored North Korea’s manifold illicit activities and sanctions evasion over the past 15 years. By casting the sole veto within the 15-member Security Council against renewing the UN watchdog’s mandate, Russia reaffirmed its support of North Korea’s criminal behavior — and effectively muzzled future Security Council–sanctioned reports on its own illicit purchase of North Korean arms.

The rapid advance in military collusion between the two pariah states raises growing concerns in capitals around the world, including Beijing.

Historically, when the Chinese leadership grows displeased with the North Korean leader, China has been prone to rewarding Pyongyang with new and generous gift packages. And President Xi himself is not an exception.

In the wake of North Korea’s third nuclear test on Feb. 12, 2013, in the middle of Chinese New Year celebrations — Xi’s first since assuming the position of general secretary the previous November — the top Chinese leadership was very displeased. But China’s trade with North Korea for the year rose to an all-time high of $6.5 billion, with the North’s exports to China rising by 17.2 percent from the previous year to account. That total trade sum has yet to be surpassed.

Expect a Xi-Kim summit meeting in Beijing soon, bigger aid packages for Kim and China continuing to turn a blind eye to Pyongyang’s increasing violations of UN resolutions, which include limits on crude and refined oil imports, arms proliferation and exports of coal, iron, textiles, seafood and North Korean labor.

Putin’s embrace of Kim incentivizes Beijing to win Pyongyang back. China has long regarded its influence over North Korea an ace card in its long-term strategic competition with the U.S. And Beijing has not seen Pyongyang cozy up to Moscow so unabashedly since 1984, when Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Un’s grandfather and the founder of the state, made a six-week odyssey by rail to Moscow and five other Warsaw Pact nations.

But today, Moscow has clearly pulled Pyongyang into its orbit. Putin is poised to make another trip to Pyongyang soon.

How should Washington respond? America and its allies in the Indo-Pacific must band with NATO member states and other partners in the region and speak with one voice against North Korea’s illicit proliferation activities and arms transfers to Russia. South Korea, a major arms exporter, should supply artillery shells and missiles to Ukraine via the U.S. Likewise, Japan should follow suit, by sending defensive arms and equipment like gas masks to Ukraine.

Washington should also vastly revamp the Proliferation Security Initiative, an international effort it launched in 2003 aimed at stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction and related materials. Over 100 countries have endorsed the initiative, but it needs a new boost. Like international sanctions enforcement or even domestic law enforcement, tracking arms trafficking is labor-intensive work, and governments must commit the resources to make it effective.

Moreover, Congress should consider budget increases for Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, both of which broadcast critical news and information into North Korea, the world’s largest most information-deprived country, and other autocracies. The systematic campaigns of internal and external lies, censorship and disinformation by Pyongyang and Moscow must be met with the broader transmission of factual information into both countries.

Inaction against the Putin-Kim partnership only invites greater threats. The U.S. must initiate a global campaign of concerted counter-proliferation and sustained sanctions enforcement against Putin and Kim, while steadfastly speaking the truth to their people. The more the international community imposes financial costs on both warring Russia and warmongering North Korea, the more inclined Beijing will be to take heed and temper its unabashed support for the two pariah regimes.

Sung-Yoon Lee is a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the author of “The Sister: North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong, the Most Dangerous Woman in the World.”