HRF calls on the international community to remember the human cost of global authoritarian alignment and collaboration. Kim Jong-un’s deepening ties with China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin are not just diplomatic maneuvers.
As China moves to reassert influence over North Korea amid Kim’s closer alignment with Putin, Beijing and Pyongyang are pledging a broader strategic front against democracies.
For North Korea’s Kim, this is not about peace or prosperity. It is about securing economic aid, diplomatic cover, and recognition for a nuclear dictatorship that survives through repression at home and aggression abroad.
HRF urges the international community to see these summits for what they are: authoritarian coordination that strengthens regimes, not people. Any discussion of regional security must keep human rights at the center.
