'A return to the cold war': Putin and Kim have joined forces as global delinquents

A quarter of a century ago, Vladimir Putin flew to Pyongyang to sign a ­"friendship treaty" with Kim Jong-il that helped revive Russia's relations with North Korea without obliging the two sides to come to each other's aid in case of a military attack. With his visit last week, Putin has in effect gone further into the past, signing a deal with Kim Jong-un reminiscent of the 1961 security pact that existed under the Soviet Union during the cold war. But today Russia is engaged in a hot war in Ukraine that Putin has made his ­foreign policy priority, and…