Restraint, retreat, defiance: why Kim Jong-un missed Russia’s Victory Day parade

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s decision to skip Moscow’s Victory Day parade in Red Square on May 9, along with the fallout from last week’s failed warship launch, has prompted fresh questions about Pyongyang’s alliances with China and Russia.

For Kim, it was a rare, almost once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as no North Korean supreme leader has ever attended such a high-profile international event.

Moreover, his attendance would have been justified – at least from his perspective – given his efforts over the past year to strengthen Pyongyang’s alliance with Moscow and supply troops and weapons to support Russia in its prolonged invasion of Ukraine.

But instead of joining Chinese President Xi Jinping and over two dozen other foreign leaders, or sending soldiers to march in the parade as China and Vietnam did, Kim opted to stay home – sending a message of restraint, retreat and defiance.

With Beijing increasingly uneasy about Pyongyang’s military alignment with Moscow, Kim’s absence spared him an awkward spotlight alongside Xi and he also avoided a public alignment with Putin that could have further strained ties with China. It was no doubt a relief not only for Xi but also for his Russian host Vladimir Putin, who called the Chinese leader “our main guest” at the Victory Day festivities.

04:14

China’s Xi Jinping joins Vladimir Putin at Victory Day parade in Russia

The North Korean leader instead made his first visit to the Russian embassy in Pyongyang on May 9, where he called Putin “my closest friend and comrade” and hailed the “blood-sealed” alliance with Russia in a speech.

South China Morning Post