Ground Zero With Kim Jung Un and Vladimir Putin

Kim Jung Un, North Korea’s totalitarian leader, and Vladimir Putin, Russia’s evolving totalitarian leader, may be more alike than is commonly thought.

Kim claimed this week that North Korea had detonated its first hydrogen bomb.  If true, it would be a huge increase in Korea’s war making capability.  Although North Korea does seem to have detonated something, its claim of a hydrogen bomb appears to be greatly exaggerated in order to grab international attention.

Putin also likes attention and boasts often of Russia’s nuclear and military capability.  Like North Korea, Russia recently claimed impressive but doubtful nuclear and military advances, including a tactical nuclear torpedo, fleets of next generation battle tanks, and a super-sized aircraft carrier.

Kim and Putin are similar in other ways, as well.  They both rule over increasingly oppressive regimes and increasingly desperate economies that would be of little importance if not for their military power.  Both suppress opposition and appear to use murder as a tool of state.  Both exercise almost absolute control over information and national media in their countries. Both maintain a posture of belligerence toward the West, and toward the United States in particular, while constantly seeking recognition from the US as equals to establish their legitimacy and importance on the global stage.  Despite appallingly badly managed economies, they both maintain high levels of military spending.  Each rattles his saber when he feels he is not getting enough attention.

Kim is one of Putin’s few remaining BFFs on the planet.  Putin has visited North Korea and cozied up to Kim while promoting cooperation and sales of Russian military hardware.   Russia even trumpeted Kim’s intention to attend Russia’s victory day celebrations in May last year—only to be embarrassed when Kim became a no-show.

There are differences to be sure.  Putin has experience with international cooperation, and many Russians have traveled outside Russia and are aware that living standards are higher elsewhere in the world.   Kim inherited a hermetic nation with nearly no outside contact and for most North Koreans the larger world is an almost mythic place populated by demons.  However, given the abstruse natures of their regimes, it is impossible to know whether the differences or the similarities are more important.

Most alarming is that Kim and Putin have each threatened to use their nuclear weapons to advance their political agendas if and when it suits them.  Their like-mindedness would be comic if not for it’s also being terribly real and dangerous.  Their words and deeds to date suggest they are capable of miscalculation verging on recklessness.  No national leader can afford to ignore the possibility of erratic or irrational behavior by one or both of them.  There is a chance one or both is mad.  But the greater likelihood is that--in their dark, medieval world where the only crime is to disagree with the boss--Kim and Putin are perilously close to destructive self-delusion.