Won Gon Park, Director of the EAI Center for North Korean Studies (Professor at Ewha Womans University), analyzes the major agreements and strategic implications of the China-Russia summit and the North Korea-China summit held in May-June 2026. Director Park assesses that the two summits formalized the consolidation of the North Korea-China-Russia triangular solidarity, including characterization of the South Korea-U.S. three-axis system as a provocative act, and warns of the advent of substantive trilateral cooperation through the Tumen River sea-access project and the reopening of the border. Director Park points out that while the rapprochement among North Korea, China, and Russia is accelerating, trilateral coordination among South Korea, the U.S., and Japan is weakening, and stresses the need for strategic deliberation on how to improve inter-Korean relations and cultivate peace on the Korean Peninsula.
