Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed a “strategic partnership agreement” in Pyongyang on Wednesday, which includes a mutual defense pact “in case of aggression.” The Russian president announced after the meeting that this treaty will elevate interactions between the two countries “to a new level,” covering various sectors from trade to security. The agreement has heightened Western concerns about the growing partnership between two nuclear-armed nations aligned over the conflict in Ukraine. Putin has linked Moscow’s rapprochement with Pyongyang to Western support for Ukraine against the Russian invasion. He noted that the United States supplies high-precision weapons and F-16 planes to Kyiv to strike Russian targets and suggested that Moscow does “not exclude developing military-technical cooperation” with North Korea, as reported by Reuters. Kim emphasized that the pact is “thoroughly peaceful and defensive” in nature.
Strengthening Ties Amid Isolation
Both Moscow and Pyongyang, isolated by much of the international community, have been aligning out of necessity due to the invasion of Ukraine and North Korea’s nuclear program. During his first visit to North Korea in 24 years, Putin used the occasion to call for a review of the United Nations Security Council's restrictions on Pyongyang. “We will continue to oppose the practice of sanctions strangulation as a tool the West uses to maintain its hegemony in politics, economy, and other spheres,” Putin stated.
The formal meeting between the two delegations began Wednesday morning (local time) in Pyongyang, marked by anti-Western rhetoric. “We highly appreciate your consistent and unwavering support for Russian policy, including in the Ukrainian direction,” Putin told Kim, referring to the “struggle against the hegemonic policy imposed for decades by the United States and its satellites towards the Russian Federation.”
Kim declared that relations between North Korea and Russia are entering a period of “new great prosperity,” expressing his country’s “full support and solidarity with the Russian government, army, and people in carrying out a special military operation in Ukraine.”
Western Concerns
Washington suspects North Korea of supplying ammunition to Russia and views Putin’s trip as a sign of Moscow’s “desperation” to secure arms supplies, a term used by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. South Korean intelligence estimates that Pyongyang has secretly sent Russia nearly five million projectiles and dozens of ballistic missiles. The U.S. believes that 11,000 containers have been used to transport this ammunition, with the supply line allegedly beginning after Kim’s visit to Russia last September.
There are also concerns about what Moscow might provide in return to a country isolated by international sanctions due to its nuclear program. Washington has reported increased Russian refined oil exports above United Nations limits, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has expressed fears of “potential” Russian support for North Korea’s atomic and missile programs.
South Korean Defense Minister Shin Wonsik has claimed that Russia has supplied North Korea with technology to aid in deploying spy satellites, as well as conventional weapons like tanks and aircraft, according to Bloomberg.
A New Era of Cooperation
Before making the strategic partnership public, Putin described it as “a new fundamental document which will lay the foundation for our relations for a long-term perspective.” Artyom Luki, an analyst at the Far Eastern Federal University, suggested that the agreement could signal a significant change in the strategic landscape of Northeast Asia, depending on its contents, which were not immediately disclosed.
After signing the agreement, Putin and Kim took a ride in a limousine from the Russian luxury brand Aurus, with Putin driving and Kim as a passenger. Putin recently gifted Kim one of these vehicles.
Ahead of his arrival in Pyongyang, Putin expressed his intent to create a system of exchanges with North Korea to circumvent the increasing pressure of sanctions. His proposal aims to “develop alternative trade and mutual settlements mechanisms not controlled by the West, jointly oppose illegitimate unilateral restrictions, and shape the architecture of equal and indivisible security in Eurasia.”
