U.S. fears Putin and Kim Jong

U.S. officials are preparing for North Korea to undertake increasingly 'provocative' actions in the run-up to the November elections, as Pyongyang cements longstanding ties with Moscow.

'We have no doubt that North Korea will be provocative this year. It’s just a matter of how escalatory it is,' a U.S. intelligence official told NBC News.

It comes in anticipation of a likely meeting between North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was reelected this year with 87 per cent of the vote after more than two decades in power.

Some of the escalatory actions, whatever they may be, are expected to come close to the U.S. election, according to intelligence officials. 

Biden Administration officials are raising concerns about the alliance, which comes amid an embrace between U.S. rivals Russia and China during the run-up to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The warning has echoes of 2016, when U.S. officials accused Russia of interference in the election. Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 34 individuals including members of a Russian troll farm linked to the Kremlin after his two-year probe. 

U.S. intelligence fears North Korea is planning increasingly provocative actions in the weeks before the U.S. November elections

U.S. officials are anticipating the volatile Kim will ink a deal for increased military transfers from Russia, according to the report.

The White House said in January that Russia used North Korean-made short range ballistic missiles to strike Ukraine, in just the latest instance of their cooperation.

Among the concerns for U.S. intelligence officials: that Putin's Russia is giving North Korea nuclear sub technology as well as aiding its decades-long bid to refine ballistic missile technology. 

In exchange, Pyongyang has been supplying Russia with arms to aid its ongoing war in Ukraine.  

Another concern is that Russia could help North Korea advance in its effort to build a sub that could launch nuclear-armed missiles – a threat that would allow it to extend its threat to U.S. allies Japan and others throughout the region. 

The concerns come as the White House has repeatedly pressed China not to aid Russia's invasion with its own arms trove.

The U.S. has spent decades trying to contain North Korea's missile technology. This picture taken on April 19, 2024 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on April 20, 2024 shows the DPRK Missile Administration conducting a test launch of "Pyoljji-1-2" new-type anti-aircraft missiles in the West Sea of Korea

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to visit Pyongyang soon

President Joe Biden has based his reelection in part on protecting democracies and confronting Russian aggression

'Just recently we have been articulating, in quite urgent terms, our concern about what China is doing to fuel Russia's war machine -- not giving weapons directly, but providing inputs to Russia's defense industrial base,' White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters at the White House this week.

'That is happening. That is something we're concerned about,' he said. 

Any volatile actions by North Korea could help amplify Donald Trump's relentless attacks on President Biden's foreign policy, which Trump has called a disaster.

Trump himself has boasted about how he ended up trading 'love letters' with Kim after warning early in his presidency North Korea would be met with 'fire and fury' if it made any more threats to the U.S.