What is Putin up to now?

Vladimir Putin, he of the deadly eyes and tight lips, is urgently seeking a meeting with Kim Jong-un. What on earth is that all about? Surely it's Putin up to his latest piece of mischief-making. Perhaps he is so angry with Trump over the new US sanctions against Moscow over the Novichok poisoning that he is determined to undermine everything the American president is trying to achieve in North Korea. The best way to do that is to promise Kim that Moscow will trade with North Korea whatever Trump says and will allow as many North Koreans into Russia to work as he wants. Or maybe he has even more cunning plans up his sleeve to make friends with Kim. The North Korean leader can't believe his luck. On minute he is the pariah of the universe with only Beijing deigning to talk to him, and then suddenly he is on everyone's visiting list. First it was Xi Zinping, then President Moon of South Korea, then Trump, then Bashar Assad, and now Putin. He has done pretty well for himself, except that he has still failed to lift the crippling sanctions on his country, and this may be where Putin steps in. I can't think of any other reason why the two leaders should suddenly get all chummy. Poor Trump, he tried so hard to make friends with Putin but he is stuck with the law and Congress. Nobody else in Washington wants to be friends with Moscow, so Trump has to go along with sanctions while still letting Putin know he loves him really. Putin has probably had enough of this American duplicity and is going to do a bit of stirrng on the world stage by chatting up Kim and promising lots of goodies. But of course that won't impress Congress so, in the end, he will realise this is no way to get the sanctions against Russia lifted. Putin is probably thinking long term, just like the Chinese. He doesn't have mid-term elections to worry about or reelection in 2020. So whatever he has in mind with Kim in Pyongyang, he must think it will benefit Russia at some point.