Seoul, South Korea. The new agreement between Russia and North Korea reached by their leaders at a Pyongyang summit requires both countries to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance in the event of war, North Korean state media said Thursday.
Both North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Russia’s Vladimir Putin described the deal reached Wednesday as a major improvement in bilateral relations, spanning security, trade, investment, cultural and humanitarian ties. Outside observers said it could mark the strongest connection between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported Thursday on the language of the comprehensive strategic partnership agreement. The agency said Article 4 of the agreement states that if one of the countries is invaded and pushed into a state of war, the other must deploy “all means at its disposal without delay” to provide “military and other assistance.” .
The summit between Kim and Putin came as the United States and its allies expressed growing concern about a possible arms deal in which Pyongyang provides Moscow with much-needed ammunition for its war in ukrainein exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers that could increase the threat posed by Kim’s missile and nuclear weapons program.
After their summit, Kim said the two countries had a “fiery friendship” and that the agreement was their “strongest treaty to date,” placing the relationship at the level of an alliance. He pledged full support for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Putin called it a “revolutionary document” that reflects shared desires to take relations to a higher level.
North Korea and the former Soviet Union signed a treaty in 1961, which experts said required Moscow’s military intervention if the North was attacked. The agreement was scrapped after the collapse of the USSR and replaced by one in 2000 that offered weaker security guarantees.
After the meeting between Kim and Putin, South Korean officials said they were still interpreting the results of the summit, including what Russia’s response might be if the North is attacked and whether the new agreement promises a level of protection similar to the treaty. 1961. South Korean officials did not immediately comment on the North Korean report on the details of the agreement until Thursday morning.
“For now, there is nothing specific we can tell you,” said Lee Kyung-ho, spokesman for Seoul’s Defense Ministry, when asked during a briefing whether he assesses that Russia has committed to an automatic military invention in the name of the North. in war situations.
The deal was reached as Putin visited North Korea for the first time in 24 years, a visit that showcased his personal and geopolitical ties with Kim hugging Putin twice at the airport, his motorcade passing giant Russian flags and portraits of Putin, and a welcome ceremony. in Pyongyang’s main square attended by what appeared to be tens of thousands of spectators.
According to KCNA, the agreement also states that Pyongyang and Moscow must not enter into agreements with third parties if they infringe on the “core interests” of another and must not engage in actions that threaten those interests.
KCNA said the agreements require countries to take steps to prepare joint measures to strengthen their defense capabilities to prevent war and protect regional and global peace and security. The agency did not specify what those steps are or whether they would include combined military training and other cooperation.
The agreement also requires the countries to actively cooperate in efforts to establish a “just and multipolar new world order,” KCNA said, underscoring how the countries are aligning in the face of their separate and growing confrontations with the United States.
In recent months, Kim has made Russia his priority as he pushes a foreign policy aimed at expanding relations with countries that confront Washington, embracing the idea of a “new Cold War” and trying to show a united front in the Putin’s broader conflicts with the West.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest in years, and the pace of Kim’s two elections weapons tests and combined military exercises Tensions between the United States, South Korea and Japan escalate in a tit-for-tat cycle.
The two Koreas have also engaged in Cold War-style psychological warfare, with North Korea dropping tons of garbage on the South with balloons and the South broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda with its loudspeakers.
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