Putin meets Kim Jong Un, looking for arms – and friends

Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed North Korea’s Kim Jong Un Wednesday at a space center in far eastern Russia saying, “One old friend is better than two new ones.”

That may be more than just a pithy proverb.

Both the Russian and North Korean delegations at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, near the Chinese border, included officials responsible for munitions, suggesting an urgent Russian interest in gaining access to North Korea’s reputedly huge stockpiles of Soviet-standard weaponry to feed its ordnance-intensive war effort in Ukraine.

But analysts suggest that something more than a single transaction is underway. Both Mr. Putin and Mr. Kim made frequent, if