For galore years, Kim Jong Un was roundly dismissed by galore Western leaders arsenic a superior threat to bid and stableness connected nan world shape contempt his sabre-rattling rhetoric and promises of atomic confrontation.
The chubby North Korean chief's cautiously staged photograph ops pinch legions of fawning women and cringeworthy authorities media montages of him admiring rocket tests from down a brace of aviators did small to remedy his 'all bark, nary bite' image.
Yet nan dynastic leader's dogged pursuit of a devastating atomic arsenal and person ties pinch Russia and China now seems to beryllium paying disconnected - and nan West has been forced to return notice.
For months, North Korea is believed to person supplied Vladimir Putin's forces pinch a dependable watercourse of artillery shells and missiles utilized against Ukrainian forces and defenceless civilians alike.
In September, nan nation's authorities news agency unveiled to nan world nan first-ever glimpse into a installation producing weapons-grade uranium for nan alleged Hermit Kingdom's intercontinental ballistic missiles.
And this week, Kyiv, Seoul and Washington sounded nan siren that thousands of North Korean troops are training successful Russia and whitethorn soon subordinate Moscow's soldiers successful nonstop conflict pinch nan Ukrainian defenders.
Now, arsenic nan Ukrainian President warns that North Korea's engagement could hasten nan eruption of World War III, MailOnline charts nan downward spiral of Kim's relations pinch nan West and examines nan imaginable fallout if Pyongyang's troops measurement onto European soil.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, centre, walks astir a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic rocket (ICBM) successful a state-produced video showcasing nan powerfulness of Pyongyang's atomic forces
Since 2019, Kim has sought person ties pinch nan likes of Russia and China while ordering subject scientists and his monolithic defence manufacture to embark connected a run of accelerated armament
Putin and Kim clink glasses amid nan former's sojourn to Pyongyang
Test-firing of North Korea's Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic rocket astatine Pyongyang International Airport
Footage purportedly shows North Korean troops successful Russia up of deployment to Ukraine
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his girl be a photograph convention pinch nan scientists, engineers, subject officials and others progressive successful nan test-fire of nan country's caller Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic rocket (ICBM)
The Ukrainian President has warned that North Korea's engagement could hasten nan eruption of World War III
As unthinkable arsenic it seems now, location was a clip not truthful agelong agone erstwhile nan imaginable of North Korea and nan West breaking decades of communal disdain successful favour of rapprochement appeared somewhat legitimate.
After Kim Jong Un took powerfulness successful 2011 pursuing nan decease of his begetter Kim Jong Il, nan rocky relations betwixt his federation and nan US plunged to caller lows.
The Obama management battered Pyongyang pinch sanctions successful an effort to unit Kim into a disappointment submission by abandoning his ruthless pursuit of atomic weapons and extremist militarisation - 1 that yet proved futile.
Little changed astatine first erstwhile Donald Trump won nan keys to nan White House successful 2016 - the braggadocios businessman was noticeably confrontational pinch nan North Korean leader, branding him nan 'Little Rocket Man'.
The cutting moniker - a reference to Kim's incessant rocket tests and less-than-imposing beingness stature - was an instant deed and nan dictator has been powerless to flight it ever since.
But earlier agelong their narration began to thaw, and nan world successful 2018 witnessed a landmark infinitesimal when Trump became nan first US president to ever meet a North Korean leader erstwhile nan brace came look to look astatine a acme successful Singapore.
That moment, which analysts heralded arsenic Washington's nickname of North Korea arsenic a morganatic state, triggered what looked to beryllium a melodramatic displacement successful bilateral relations.
Pyongyang's dynastic main engaged successful a bid of summits and talks pinch US diplomats and confederate counterparts successful which, by immoderate accounts, he appeared genuinely keen to repair relations pinch nan West.
North Korea joined different atomic powers successful agreeing to extremity atomic testing successful 2018 erstwhile Kim claimed he had 'completed' nuclearisation and imposed a moratorium connected further operations.
And a twelvemonth aft their first meeting, Trump made history again erstwhile he held a meeting with Kim successful nan demilitarised area separating North Korea from nan South.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, and U.S. President Donald Trump hole to shingle hands astatine nan separator colony of Panmunjom successful nan Demilitarized Zone, South Korea, June 30, 2019
This undated image released from North Korea's charismatic Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) connected September 16, 2017 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) inspecting a launching drill of nan medium-and-long-range strategical ballistic rocket Hwasong-12
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, halfway left, walks around Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic rocket (ICBM) pinch 1 of his subject chiefs
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits nan National Defense University successful Pyongyang, North Korea, October 7, 2024
South Korea's erstwhile president Moon Jae In revealed successful his memoirs that successful meetings pinch US and South Korean diplomats, Kim expressed upset astatine nan 'global mistrust' of his federation and moreover considered embarking connected a atomic disarmament programme successful speech for sanctions alleviation and a amended narration pinch nan West.
Moon moreover said that Ju Ae - 1 of 3 children fathered by Kim who galore judge is being groomed arsenic his successor - was a cardinal motivating facet down this drive, alleging that nan North Korean leader once 'mentioned that he has a girl and doesn't want her procreation to unrecorded pinch nan load of atomic weapons'.
But Trump's talks were yet unsuccessful, and soon aft nan 2019 gathering immoderate glimmer of dream that Pyongyang and Washington could reconcile simply evaporated erstwhile nan 'rocket man' announced he had lifted nan moratorium connected atomic testing and vowed to plough ahead.
Ever since, Kim has pursued a overmuch much hawkish policy, seeking person ties pinch nan likes of Russia and China while ordering subject scientists and his monolithic defence manufacture to embark connected a run of accelerated armament.
Now, conscionable 5 years connected from nan handshake successful nan DMZ, North Korea's relations pinch nan West are astatine their lowest ebb.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivering a reside astatine Kim Jong Un University of National Defence for its 60th founding day successful Pyongyang, wherever he warned he would return action against nan US and South Korea if they continued to provoke North Korea
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his girl Kim Ju Ae be a ceremony of nan 79th day of nan founding of nan Workers' Party of Korea successful Pyongyang, North Korea, October 10, 2024
Kim and his girl Ju Ae watch an intercontinental ballistic rocket launching from an undisclosed location successful North Korea
Since adopting an fierce atomic doctrine successful 2022, North Korea has many times vowed to usage atomic weapons first if it perceives nan activity successful Pyongyang arsenic nether threat.
Last twelvemonth saw nan pariah authorities behaviour a grounds number of rocket tests and Kim has successful caller months routinely delivered rousing speeches ordering his troops to hole for a early conflict.
In April, his forces reportedly conducted North Korea's first ever 'nuclear trigger' drills which progressive simulating an intercontinental ballistic rocket (ICBM) counterattack.
Then past month, North Korea's media unveiled to nan world a glimpse into a installation producing weapons-grade uranium arsenic Kim ordered his scientists and subject officials to 'exponentially' summation nan number of nuclear weapons astatine his disposal.
A action of authorities media photos showed Kim clad successful all-black being briefed by scientists and a brace of subject men while stepping done agelong lines of gangly grey tubes.
The Korean Central News Agency didn't opportunity erstwhile Kim visited nan facilities, nor did it uncover wherever they are located.
But it was the pariah state's first disclosure of a uranium-enrichment installation since it showed 1 astatine Yongbyon to visiting American scholars successful 2010 - and nan first clip it has ever published pictures to nan world.
While nan latest unveiling is apt an effort to use much unit connected nan US and its allies, nan images could supply outsiders pinch a valuable root of accusation for estimating nan magnitude of atomic ingredients that North Korea has produced.
Experts besides said nan abrupt nationalist disclosure of nan North's uranium enrichment installation could beryllium intended to effect nan US statesmanlike election in November.
The images are 'a connection to nan adjacent management that it will beryllium intolerable to denuclearise North Korea', according to Hong Min, a elder expert astatine nan Korea Institute for National Unification.
'It is besides a connection demanding different countries to admit North Korea arsenic a atomic state,' he added.
A action of authorities media photos showed Kim clad successful all-black being briefed by scientists and a brace of subject men while stepping on agelong lines of gangly grey tubes
Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un meet successful Pyongyang, June 19, 2024
A leaked video allegedly shows North Korean troops successful Russia being kitted retired pinch subject equipment
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un intends a limb arsenic he visits a training base
In caller days, North Korea's standoff pinch nan West ramped up to caller levels.
After months of having provided artillery shells and ammunition sorely needed to support up Russia's furious complaint of occurrence grinding Ukraine's defenders down, Kyiv and Seoul sounded nan siren that thousands of troops from North Korea had arrived successful Russia.
Moscow and Pyongyang dismissed nan claims arsenic fabrication, but Ukraine, nan US and South Korea each insist their intelligence puts thousands of North Korean soldiers connected Russian soil.
US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby declared connected Wednesday that Washington is not definite whether nan troops are headed for nan frontline, but added: 'If these North Korean troops are employed against Ukraine 'they will go morganatic subject targets'.
Zelensky meanwhile has warned that nan information of a 3rd state could escalate nan conflict into a world war, and Kyiv is already preparing arsenic though combating North Korea successful its territory is inevitable.
Ukraine's 'I Want to Live' project, a hotline encouraging Russian soldiers to surrender, published a video successful Korean connected Wednesday calling for North Korean soldiers to springiness up.
'We telephone for nan soldiers of nan Korean People's Army, who were sent to thief nan Putin regime. You should not dice senselessly connected personification else's land. There is nary request to repetition nan destiny of hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers who will ne'er return home!' it said.
An injection of 10,000 North Korean troops, which is what some Ukrainian and South Korean intelligence person claimed, 'could importantly destabilise Ukraine's defence and greatly accelerate nan advancement of Russian forces,' said Glib Voloskyi, an expert from a Ukrainian deliberation tank, Come Back Alive Initiatives Center.
But nan reported figures of North Korean unit numbers alteration wildly, pinch US intelligence putting nan number astatine 3,000.
And though Russian subject sources who said to nan BBC confirmed North Korean soldiers had so arrived successful nan Far East, they said nan number was 'nowhere adjacent 3,000'.
In immoderate case, Western defence officials are treating nan imaginable very seriously.
'If they're co-belligerents — if their volition is to participate successful this warfare connected Russia's behalf — that is simply a very, very superior issue,' US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said.
'It will person impacts, not only successful Europe. It will besides effect things successful nan Indo-Pacific arsenic well.'
Russia's President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un be a authorities reception successful Pyongyang, North Korea June 19, 2024
A caller 600mm aggregate rocket launcher is test-fired astatine an undisclosed location successful North Korea
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, foreground right, be nan charismatic invited ceremonial successful nan Kim Il Sung Square successful Pyongyang, North Korea, connected Wednesday, June 19, 2024
Russia's President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un thrust an Aurus car successful Pyongyang, North Korea successful this image released by nan Korean Central News Agency June 20
Zelensky, pursuing a gathering pinch defence officials connected Friday, said North Korean troops could beryllium sent to conflict Ukrainian troops this weekend.
'According to intelligence reports, connected 27-28 October, Russia will usage nan first North Korean subject successful combat zones,' he said successful a connection connected societal media.
'The existent engagement of North Korea successful hostilities should beryllium met not pinch a unsighted oculus and confused comments, but pinch tangible unit connected some Moscow and Pyongyang to comply pinch nan UN Charter and to punish escalation,' he added.
A elder charismatic wrong nan Ukrainian president's agency said nan North Korean troops could beryllium deployed successful conflict either to nan Russian region of Kursk aliases successful eastbound Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said successful an question and reply aired Friday connected authorities tv that it was up to Moscow really it uses nan treaty's clause connected communal subject assistance.
'What action we return pinch this clause - that's still nether question. We are successful touch pinch our North Korean friends,' Putin said.
'I mean to opportunity that it's our sovereign decision, whether we usage thing aliases not - where, really - whether we request this, aliases we, for example, only transportation retired immoderate exercises, training, passing connected immoderate acquisition - that's our business,' he added.