The Know Daily - Wednesday 13 September 2023

_{Wednesday 13 September ∙ Read in 5m 24s ∙ Listening to The Rolling Stones}

After initial research revealed a number of “unexpected glowworm strongholds” across London, the London Wildlife Trust has launched a project aimed at better understanding exactly where the endangered beetles are thriving. If you want to glo and get involved, the conservation charity is calling for volunteers to help with the count.

🤝 Kim and Putin’s meeting

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin are currently holding talks at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a space rocket launch site in Russia’s far east. Here’s what you need to know.

Tell me more.
On Sunday, Kim - along with North Korean arms industry officials, military officers, his defence minister and his powerful younger sister, Kim Yo Jong - boarded an armoured train from Pyongyang to the Russian city of Vladivostok, crossing the border early on Tuesday morning.

The weight of the train - which the BBC said was “rumoured to include at least 20 bulletproof cars” - meant that it moved very slowly, travelling at around 37mph. Kim and his entourage arrived at the spaceport at around 5am UK time this morning and official talks between the two leaders are now underway.

What will the pair discuss?
Arms and ammunition are likely to be top of the agenda. Putin is expected to request artillery shells and antitank missiles from Kim to support Russia’s war in Ukraine and “replace stocks that have been heavily depleted during 18 months of fighting”, said The Guardian.

Space, which BBC Russia editor Steve Rosenberg described as “a subject of huge interest to North Korea’s leader”, will also be part of the discussions. It’s been widely speculated that Kim will ask Putin for help with building advanced satellites after twice failing to place spy satellites into orbit.

Why is this meeting so significant?
Kim doesn’t tend to leave North Korea very often - and this trip marks his first time abroad since before the pandemic. The last time he left the country he also went to Vladivostok, back in 2019, following a failed summit with then-US President Donald Trump.

The meeting is expected to strengthen bilateral ties between the two leaders and “a closer alliance between the countries could present new and challenging security threats to the West”, said ABC News.

What has the response been?
On Monday, the US suggested that the meeting showed desperation on Putin’s side. “Having to travel across the length of his own country to meet with an international pariah to ask for assistance in a war that he expected to win in the opening month, I would characterise it as him begging for assistance,” said a State Department spokesperson.

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