Joe Lay

So, for instance, Kim sent Korean troops in 2024 to fight against the Ukrainians on the side of the Russians.

And this was a gesture that won him a lot of credit with Vladimir Putin.

Of course, we think China didn't really like this very much, but it sort of stood by and watched.

But that's the kind of way that he creates leverage for himself.

Yeah, you remember some years ago, Trump had these negotiations with Kim.

And after, I think, three sessions or so, the talks collapsed.

Trump has been continuously expressing his willingness to talk to Kim.

And the idea might be from Kim's side to try to attract the US in some way and try to get some sort of engagement going with the US because, of course, that then creates leverage with Russia and China.

So again, he can play this kind of this tripartite game with the great powers.

How he would attract the US this time, it's not clear.

I spoke to one Chinese scholar who said that North Korea's recent decision to drop reunification with South Korea from its constitution could be one way because that would mean that, you know, they have no intention anymore of invading South Korea.

But he also identified South Korea as an extremely hostile nation at the same time.

So it's not really clear, but that's the kind of game that North Korea plays.

Thanks, Victoria.

There's a range of motivations here.

For quite a few years, China has been doing informal sanctions against countries.

But now, increasingly, it's been introducing legislation and regulations that are really formalizing these forms of economic sanctions.

And in the past two weeks, it came out with some of the broadest and more sweeping rules that we've seen to date.

I think these new rules were probably coming for a long time and probably they had them up their sleeve.

But recently there was a posting on social media, an official sort of Communist Party mouthpiece, which essentially linked these rules to the Iran war and also the Panama Ports dispute in which a Hong Kong company, CK Hutchison, has had its ports concessions in Panama recently.