Joining Russia and China, North Korea sees Belarus as a European anchor, expert says

“Belarus serves as a shared ‘black’ window of opportunity for Russia and China — for their transactions, various autocratic cooperation, and efforts to undermine the rules-based international order,” Kharytonov said.

“Russians boast about this, and analysts in democracies say Belarus and North Korea are becoming indistinguishable states.”

He added that Belarus and North Korea play the same role as “black jurisdictions” and as extralegal networks that allow China and Russia to “do terrible things.”

“That’s why ties between North Korea and Belarus have intensified — something Ukraine has shamefully paid little attention to, [unless it] is about how North Korea is appearing on our borders; North Korea, in reality, is really about China,” he said.