This is CBS Eye on the World with John Bachelorette, here's John Bachelorette.

The dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, in Russia, not only in Russia, but in Vastachni,

the Russian rocket base in Siberia, to meet with Vladimir Putin, noticeably a much in

the news, because the Russian media covered it heavily, and the images across Russia, across

Europe, certainly in Duasia, introduced the possibility that this is yes about the Ukraine

war. We're told that Russia is shopping for artillery shells. However, Shoigu could

have handled that, the Defense Minister, when he was visiting Kim in Pyongyang. This meeting

suggests something more is in the future, and I welcome Anatol Liven of the Quincy Institute

for Responsible Statecraft. Anatol's striking images of Kim traveling to Vastachni in his

guarded train, but the greeting by Vladimir Putin was genuine and diplomatic at the same time.

Yes, this is about Ukraine, but it's also about what I would say is an alliance that includes

China. How do you interpret these events? Good evening to you.

Hello, John. Well, it is in part, of course, as has been reported, a strictly practical military

deal for North Korea to provide, perhaps as many as a million, perhaps more, artillery shells

to Russia for the war in Ukraine. This is, I think, in part a response to America getting

hundreds of thousands of shells from South Korea earlier this year. What we don't know,

and which is absolutely critical, is what Russia will give in return, because the supply of Russian

missile technology would transform North Korea's nuclear deterrent, allowing it to strike the United

States, which would certainly be a considerable escalation. But you're quite right. I mean,

it also goes beyond this. Putin is obviously anxious to build up alliances and partnerships now

wherever he can. And especially in areas where obviously, as in the Korean Peninsula,

he can remind the United States and its allies that Russia indirectly has the capacity to do a

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