LEILA FADEL, HOST:
China will stage an elaborate military parade next Wednesday to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Topping the guest list will be the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. While dozens of world leaders are expected to attend the event, President Trump is not one of them.
FADEL: To help us preview the big event, NPR’s Anthony Kuhn joins us from Seoul. Good morning, Anthony.
ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: Morning, Leila.
FADEL: OK, so this is the first time ever the leaders of Russia, China and North Korea will meet. What can we expect from the meeting?
KUHN: Yeah. It’s not only the first meeting of Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un. It’s a meeting of the three nations’ leaders that we didn’t even see during the Cold War. So I think we can expect some pretty striking images of these three men atop the rostrum in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
In terms of concrete cooperation, there’s been some. Russia and China have, for example, helped North Korea defeat international sanctions. China and North Korea have helped Russia to differing degrees in its war in Ukraine. But they don’t have three-way military drills. They don’t have any three-way offices or institutions. It’s a loose coalition and this parade will tighten it somewhat. Also, all three of these nations fought fascist powers in World War II. Russia now claims it’s once again fighting fascists in Ukraine, and North Korea agrees with them, so they’re at least trying to link the past and present in some sort of narrative.
FADEL: OK. So President Trump won’t be in attendance. Who will be?
KUHN: There’ll be heads of state and government from 26 nations. Many are aligned with North Korea and China and Russia, such as Iran, Cuba, Vietnam and Myanmar. The Serbian president and the Slovak prime minister are the only Western leaders there. Also, South Korea’s president will be notably absent, but I guess if Kim wants to reach out to South Korea, their parliamentary speaker will be there for him to speak to.
FADEL: Now, this is North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s first big multilateral event. How will he approach it?
KUHN: Well, historically, North Korea’s main ally has been China, but Kim Jong Un has recently drawn closer to Vladimir Putin, signing a mutual defense treaty last year with Russia, sending some 12,000 troops to help them fight Ukraine. But with peace talks now beginning, Kim may be starting to look past Ukraine. I spoke about this with Asia Society senior fellow John Delury, and here’s what he said.
JOHN DELURY: We can certainly read this as Kim Jong Un realizing, OK, I can’t put all my eggs in the Russian basket and, again, need to kind of improve the ties with China, but also looking beyond China at Donald Trump and see what may be in play with the Americans.
KUHN: Remember that Trump met with Kim three times in 2018 to 2019. He says he’d like to meet with Kim again this year, and if that happens, Kim will be in a stronger position with Moscow and Beijing’s backing.
FADEL: OK, what message is China looking to send at this event?
KUHN: Well, they’re positioning themselves as leader of a multipolar alternative to the U.S.-led order. They’ll be rolling a lot of military hardware through Tiananmen Square, and they’ll be highlighting their contribution as being on the right side and the winning side of World War II, where they suffered 35 million people killed and wounded. And that’s a message they can send both domestically and internationally.
FADEL: That’s NPR’s Anthony Kuhn. Thank you for your reporting, Anthony.
KUHN: You’re welcome.
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