Good morning. This is London Correspondent Mark Paul, standing in for Denis Staunton while he is away.
Things are looking up for Kim Jong-un
His new beach resort might be tanking but, that little setback aside, the outlook looks surprisingly rosy all of a sudden for Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea.
Just five years ago, his secretive, paranoid Asian nation was on its uppers. Even Kim publicly admitted that his economic plans had failed “in almost every sector”.
Then Vladimir Putin’s Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and everything changed.
Now, North Korea’s economy, juiced up on weapons sales to Russia, is growing at 3.5 per cent annually, according to the central bank of its bitter regional rival, South Korea. That is faster than the growth rates of the US, the European Union, Japan and Brazil.
Most of North Korea’s population of 27 million still lives in dire poverty, but its economy has grown for three years in a row since 2023, buttressing the regime.
Meanwhile, international calls for North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons programme are not as vociferous as they once were, while Kim is also being publicly courted by three of the five permanent members of the United Nations security council. Kim is now flavour of the month with China, Russia and, as of last week, the US led by Donald Trump, who covets a repeat of his 2018 summit with Kim that made global headlines.
This time, the North Korea has more cards to play – last time it was truly exhausted by crippling sanctions.
But what price might Kim extract from the US president to agree to a fresh summit?
North Korea has established itself as a vital bulwark of Putin’s war in Ukraine. It has sold Russia an estimated $14 billion (€12 billion) of weapons, including at least 10 million shells and rockets. Tens of thousands of North Korea’s military personnel have also fought for Putin in Ukraine, or hammered it with drones piloted from Russia.
Kim has also repaired his relationship with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, who made his only foreign trip so far in 2026 to the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.
Now Trump, mired in negative publicity over his flailing in Iran, wants to revive his relationship with Kim so that he can claim a foreign policy win.
The US president last week abruptly scaled back military drills with South Korea as part of his courting of its rival to the north. Kim shrugged his shoulders as Pyongyang issued an official response that effectively said: “we’re not bothered”.
To entice the North Korean leader back to the table, it is likely Trump will first have to pony up significant sanctions relief. The real goal for Kim, however, will be to extract some sort of official recognition from the US of its status as a nuclear power.
If that were to happen, the world’s oddest bromance could really be back on.
Trump, who owns resorts all over the world, might even be able to offer some tips to Kim, whose flagship tourism project, the new Wonsan Kalma beach resort, is reportedly struggling to attract the Russian visitors who are the only ones currently allowed to use it.
Please let me know what you think and send me your comments, thoughts or suggestions for topics you would like to see covered to denis.globalbriefing@irishtimes.com
