It’s been a long time coming, but the Kremlin has confirmed that the Russian president will travel to North Korea for a two-day visit this week. Mr. Putin is expected to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for talks focused on expanding military cooperation and other aspects of the deepening relationship between the two nations. It’s Mr. Putin’s first visit to North Korea in 24 years.

North Korea is playing an increasingly crucial role in helping to sustain Russia’s war machine in Ukraine. Late last month, the Defense Intelligence Agency said it found concrete evidence that Russian troops used ballistic missiles produced in North Korea in an offensive against the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. In exchange, analysts say, Russia is providing Pyongyang with food, economic assistance and other forms of aid.

The relationship appears largely transactional, as both Moscow and Pyongyang need the other’s help right now. But Washington Times Asia Editor Andrew Salmon has a deep dive into the long-term strategic implications of the Russia-North Korea partnership. North Korea, he writes, may not be preparing for imminent war, but the regime is girding for a long-term confrontation against the U.S. and its allies at a time when major international developments argue against a new push to try to eliminate Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal.

The Putin-Kim relationship offers North Korea unique political, strategic and economic opportunities.

Armed with North Korean munitions, Russian forces have made significant gains in the Kharkiv region and elsewhere in eastern Ukraine. But equally violent battles are raging elsewhere.

The Times’ Guillaume Ptak reports from the city of Chasiv Yar along the war’s front lines. A momentous strategic battle is being fought in the obscure city, he writes, some 200 miles from Kharkiv. Outgunned Ukrainian forces have managed to hold their lines as U.S. and other Western aid and ammunition are finally starting to make their presence felt. 

Far away from the fierce fighting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, along with key officials from 80 countries, signed on to a joint communique that said the “territorial integrity” of Ukraine must be the basis for any peace agreement to end the Russian invasion. The document capped off a two-day peace summit at the Buergenstock resort in Switzerland. But key countries such as India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and others did not sign the communique. China didn’t even attend the summit.

Russia, which wasn’t invited, has roundly criticized the event. Russian officials have even warned that if Ukraine doesn’t accept its most recent cease-fire offer — which would freeze the war along the current front lines, effectively giving Moscow permanent control over a significant chunk of Ukraine — that the next offer would be much tougher. 

But the longer the war drags on, the more expensive it gets for Mr. Putin. Military Correspondent Mike Glenn reports on how the conflict in Ukraine, now in its third year, is likely a driving force behind the Kremlin’s decision to increase the country’s corporate tax rate from 20% to 25% and its personal income tax rate from 15% to 22%. British officials said that the moves could have a negative impact on the growth of nonmilitary financial sectors in Russia for years to come. 

Russia has used the threat of nuclear weapons repeatedly over the past two years in a bid to keep Western nations, including the U.S., from intervening more aggressively on behalf of Ukraine. But is the West ready to fight fire with fire?

NATO is consulting on whether to deploy more nuclear weapons in Europe, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph. The Kremlin dubbed the comments an “escalation” on the part of the West. 

Any possible deployment of additional nuclear weapons in Europe would add to what some analysts see as an alarming risk of nuclear war. In addition to the growing nuclear dangers in Europe, China’s rapid large-scale buildup of nuclear missiles, submarines and bombers, including an orbiting nuclear strike weapon, is increasing the risk of nuclear conflict. And amid tensions with North Korea, some U.S. lawmakers have floated the idea of redeploying U.S. tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea. The U.S. previously removed its nuclear weapons from South Korea in 1991.

Those developments are among the factors that led former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to warn recently that the likelihood of a nuclear war “goes up a little bit every year.”

Israel’s War Cabinet, formed to oversee the country’s military offensive against Hamas after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, has been disbanded, according to reports. The move comes after Benny Gantz, an opposition lawmaker who had joined the coalition in the early days of the war, exited the Cabinet, which was formed originally to demonstrate broad, nonpartisan support for the war. Mr. Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant were the Cabinet’s other key members. 

The end of Israel’s War Cabinet could lead to significant changes in the country’s decision-making processes at a key moment in the war against Hamas in Gaza. Israel faces intense international pressure to wind down its military operation there. And a day before the War Cabinet was disbanded, Israel announced it was instituting a daily “tactical pause” of military activity along a route in the southern Gaza Strip so aid groups can deliver backlogs of humanitarian assistance to desperate Palestinian residents in the enclave.

Israel also faces a growing threat on its northern front from Lebanon-based Hezbollah. Israeli military officials warned Sunday of “wider escalation” between the two sides, with the IDF vowing to fulfill its “duty” to protect Israelis from Hezbollah. 

Count the pope among those sounding the alarm over the potential dangers of artificial intelligence and the need to keep humans at the helm. The pontiff late last week encouraged world leaders to keep “human control” over artificial intelligence, to not let such technology make life-and-death decisions, and to ban the use of autonomous weapons such as militarized drones.

“We need to ensure and safeguard a space for proper human control over the choices made by artificial intelligence programs: Human dignity itself depends on it,” he said.

Such warnings are becoming increasingly common and urgent. Earlier this month, a group of current and former employees at top AI companies released an open letter warning of “serious risks” associated with the AI technology.

• June 17 — Unpacking the European Parliament Election Results, Center for Strategic and International Studies

• June 18 — Back to the Drafting Board: U.S. Capabilities for Deterring and Winning in Protracted Conflict, Center for a New American Security

• June 18 — The Next Pivot to Asia, Hudson Institute

• June 18 — Tech Summit, Defense One

• June 21 — AUKUS: Taking Stock and Looking Forward, Center for a New American Security

• June 25 — 2024 Freedom and Prosperity Indexes launch, the Atlantic Council

• June 25 — AI in the Field of Economic Development, Center for Strategic and International Studies