Russian President Vladimir Putin touched down in the hermit kingdom of North Korea at 2:45 a.m. Wednesday local time and was greeted by “huge welcome banners and Russian flags” in his first visit since 2020.

He is scheduled to meet with North Korean despot Kim Jong Un later in the day:

Putin is scheduled to meet Kim later on Wednesday, when they will sign agreements designed to deepen a relationship that has strengthened significantly since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Kim, who met Putin in Vladivostok during a week-long visit to Russia last September, is one of the few world leaders to have voiced unequivocal support for the war, while Putin has described the pair as “comrades-in-arms” against western attempts to isolate them through sanctions.

What the two leaders lack in humanity, they try to make up for with pomp and circumstance:

Putin is officially in North Korea. pic.twitter.com/CKoUYCrEjJ

— Russian Market (@runews) June 18, 2024

The two dictators seem to be finding common ground over Russia’s assault on Ukraine and their shared hatred of the West.

The US and South Korea say they have evidence that North Korea has supplied dozens of ballistic missiles and more than 11,000 containers of munitions to Russia for use in Ukraine, while Kim is understood to have sought Russian food and energy aid, and help with his country’s space programme.

Both countries have denied striking an arms deal during their summit nine months ago, but on the eve of his reciprocal visit Putin thanked Kim’s government for its support.

“We highly appreciate that [North Korea] is firmly supporting the special military operations of Russia being conducted in Ukraine,” Putin wrote in an article published in the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the ruling Workers’ party, on Tuesday.

Unhinged:

North Korean Leader Orders Military to 'Thoroughly Annihilate' United States and South Korea if Provoked

Could They Be More 'Petty'? North Korea Sending Hundreds of Balloons With Garbage, Poop Into South Korea

Kim is heavily sucking up to Putin because he needs Russia's support:

🇰🇵 🇷🇺 Streets of North Korea are covered with Russian flags and pictures of President Putin ahead of his visit to the country. pic.twitter.com/2dlYZ2r8O0

— BRICS News (@BRICSinfo) June 18, 2024

What's unclear, though, is precisely what Russia is promising. We know what Putin wants—weapons—but what does Kim expect in return?

It remains publicly unknown just what Pyongyang is receiving in return for its support for Russia’s war. But governments from Seoul to Washington will be watching closely for signs of how far the warring Russian leader, who in the past supported international controls on North Korea’s illegal weapons program, is willing to go to back Kim’s bellicose regime.

Regardless of their negotiations, Putin praised his new BFF for continuing to give the middle finger to the West.

“Pyongyang had defended its interests “very effectively, despite the US economic pressure, provocation, blackmail and military threats that have lasted for decades”, Putin wrote.

He added: “We will develop alternative mechanisms of trade and mutual settlements that are not controlled by the west, and jointly resist illegitimate unilateral restrictions. And at the same time we will build an architecture of equal and indivisible security in Eurasia.”

While it’s fun to mock these two troglodytes, the reality is that they are both very dangerous and by combining their resources together, they become even more so. Unfortunately, we don’t have James Bond to help out—we only have Joe Biden, and that is not very comforting at all.