Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP
- Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu met with Kim Jong Un in North Korea this week.
- An expert on Russia told Insider that the trip is a "hazing-level job" handed down by Putin.
- Shoigu has been a lightning rod for criticism amid Russia's struggling war, but Putin can't fire him.
The man overseeing Russia's ongoing war effort in Ukraine was far from the frontlines this week carrying out President Vladimir Putin's dirty work in North Korea instead.
Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday as part of a Russian delegation sent to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War. North Korea commemorates the national holiday as "Victory Day," even though the conflict ended in a stalemate.
Shoigu's place at the center of Russia's bureaucratic visit to North Korea, even as the war in Ukraine wages on, offers insight into the embattled defense minister's current standing back home, Simon Miles, an assistant professor at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy and a historian of the Soviet Union and US-Soviet relations, told Insider.
"It's a humiliation for Russia, and for Shoigu personally, to have to go and break bread and glad hand with these North Korean weirdos as they have a fake victory celebration," Miles said.
Shoigu, a longtime friend and loyal ally of Putin, has become a lightning rod for criticism amid Russia's faltering war in Ukraine. Mounting military missteps and mistakes have prompted even Putin to sour on his one-time right-hand man.
But the most vocal criticism of Shoigu in recent months came from Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who spent months castigating Shoigu and Gen. Valery Gerasimov in videos from the frontlines before staging a short-lived mutiny last month that called for the defense minister's ousting.
Despite the very real threat to Putin's power, the Wagner uprising was ultimately quelled and Prigozhin was publicly exiled to Belarus.
Shoigu's job title was safe — at least in name, Miles said.
"Putin can't fire him for cause, which he deserves richly, because it will look like he's caving to Prigozhin," he said.
But Shoigu's relegation to North Korean delegate is almost certainly a public punishment, Miles said. The Russian defense minister spent Wednesday posing for photographs with Jong Un, taking a tour of the country's banned missiles, and delivering a letter from Putin to the North Korean president, according to Reuters.
"It's a hazing-level job," Miles said.
Russia's war struggles — publicly blamed on Shoigu — are actually a problem of Putin's own making, according to Miles.
"The Putin system is one in which you're promoted based on personal loyalty, not competency," he said. "That's the story of Shoigu. He's not good at his job. Just look at how the war is going."
Still, the Russian visit to North Korea was an important one. North Korea is one of the few countries to publicly back Russia in the war in Ukraine. The country has denied engaging in arms transactions with Russia, but the White House said North Korea shipped weapons, including rockets and missiles, to Russia in November.