Discussions of any open violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions on North Korea would signal that major international agencies will be paralysed, said Andrei Lankov, a Korea expert at Seoul's Kookmin University.
The summit is an indicator that North Korea-related Security Council resolutions are dead, as are all attempts to stop North Korea or penalise it for having a nuclear program, he said.
UKRAINE FACTORLankov also said that Russia may be unlikely to provide North Korea with advanced technology that it could eventually lose control of.
If Russia, North Korea and China feel that they are threatened, it makes sense they would seek to support each other through partnerships or even alliances to counter the United States.
"It's just difficult for me to imagine that Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin can trust each other enough for a real long term concerted alliance formation," he said.
Persons:
Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Kim, Putin, Duyeon Kim, Leif, Eric Easley, Andrei Lankov, Lankov, Mason Richey, Jinping, Josh Smith, Angus MacSwan
Organizations:
Vostochny, North, Korean Central News Agency, KCNA, REUTERS Acquire, Center, New, New American Security, Ewha University, U.S, Seoul's Kookmin University, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Thomson
Locations:
Amur, Russia, SEOUL, Russia's, U.S, Ukraine, North Korea, New American, Washington, Seoul, Tokyo, Northeast Asia, China, South Korea, Korea, UKRAINE, Kyiv, Poland, United States