The Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un has signed a strategic partnership agreement, promising to come to each other’s aid when facing aggression. Mr Kim turned away from talks with America following the failed summit in Hanoi and began making fresh overtures to Russia. The response was lukewarm until Mr Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine floundered and Russia came to need munitions, one of the few things Mr Kim’s regime has in abundance. But the implications of the realignment go beyond the weapons trade. Is Russia creating a Euro-Russia bloc to rival the west ?

