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What did Pyongyang's July 2023 gathering show?
Summary
A retrospective on the Pyongyang ceremonies and the US sanctions on Malian officials that framed 28 July 2023.
What did the picture from Pyongyang say about Russia's search for partners as of 28 July 2023? The day before, on 27 July 2023, North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un met Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu and a Chinese delegation to mark the 70th anniversary of the cessation of hostilities in the Korean War.
The optics went beyond a commemoration. Kim and Shoigu also attended an exhibition of North Korean ballistic missiles. Those missiles have been prohibited by multiple United Nations resolutions that both China and Russia endorsed, so the visit placed a Russian minister beside weapons his own government had formally backed restrictions on.
A second thread: Mali
A few days earlier, on 24 July 2023, the United States announced sanctions on three senior Malian officials, including Defence Minister Sadio Camara. Washington said they had allegedly helped to facilitate the presence of the Russian paramilitary Wagner Group in the country.
Reading the two together
The two reports concern different continents, but both involve Russian defence ties abroad: one a ministerial visit that drew a Chinese delegation too, the other a Western response to a Russian paramilitary presence. The reports of 24 and 27 July do not themselves link the events, and each stands on its own terms.
