North Korea and Russia formalize anti-US alliance with a mutual assistance agreement

North Korea and Russia Today they signed a strategic agreement that includes mutual military assistance in the event of an attack and will articulate their relationship, strengthened in the heat of the war in Ukraine and Pyongyang’s nuclear bet and that seeks to promote a new multipolar order that challenges US hegemony.

The so-called “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement” will replace the diplomatic treaties signed between Moscow and Pyongyang in 1961, 2000 and 2001, as announced by Yuri Ushakov, the advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin on international politics.

The pact contemplates “assistance in the event that one of the two countries is attacked,” according to Putin himself in statements collected by the Russian Tass agency.

The signing of the agreement occurred after Putin and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-unthey will first hold an expanded summit and then a two-hour face-to-face meeting in Pyongyang, a city that the Russian president visited today for the first time in 24 years, something that well illustrates the relationship of mutual need that has recently been established between both countries. .

Grand welcome ceremony

The meeting was preceded by a grand ceremony to welcome Putin in the iconic Kim Il-sung Square in the North Korean capital, decorated with balloons and thousands of North Korean citizens waving the flags of both countries.

Ushakov said that the new document is necessary due to the current profound geopolitical changes and although he assured that “It will not have any confrontational character, it will not be directed against any country and it will be aimed at guaranteeing stability in Northeast Asia”Moscow and Pyongyang have been in charge of insistently pointing out these days the pressures to which they are subjected Washington.

In this sense, Putin has stated in an editorial published by the North Korean newspaper Rodong on the occasion of his visit that both countries will work to create a “reciprocal trade and payment system” that allows exchanges by bypassing the financial circuits linked to the dollar. which both countries are prohibited from accessing.

An uncomfortable treaty

In the same way, the new treaty and its mutual defense clause serve as a response to the greater military approach that they have opted for. USA., South Korea and Japan – all visibly upset with Putin’s trip to Pyongyang – and does not seem to align with the interests of China either, which continues to advocate denuclearization on the Korean peninsula.

At the same time, at a time when Moscow has stopped supporting the sanctions of the UN that punish Pyongyang (today Kim was given another Aurus limousine, in case there were any doubts) and seems to be de facto recognizing North Korea as a nuclear state, the agreement provides certain security guarantees to a Kim Jong-un who has entrusted everything to its atomic program and since 2022 showed its support for the invasion of Ukraine.

Both leaders remembered this today, with Putin thanking North Korea for “unwavering support” for “Russian policies, including those regarding Ukraine” and Kim highlighting “the important mission” of Moscow “in regards to maintaining strategic stability and balance in the world” and arguing that its “special military operation in Ukraine” protects Russian sovereignty and security.

More arms exchanges?

Many analysts believe that the trip Putinwho plans to fly to Vietnam today for a two-day visit, may serve to increase direct exchanges in the arms field after an agreement in this field that Putin and Kim signed at a summit last year in the Russian region. from Amur.

According to South Korea and Western powers, Pyongyang has transferred to Moscow in the last year thousands of containers with weapons – which would contain millions of projectiles for artillery pieces and missile launchers – that the Russian Army has used on the battlefield in Ukraine.

In return, there are those who maintain that Moscow advised the North Korean regime to launch spy satellites, an action that could also constitute a violation of the sanctions of the UN against North Korea.

In any case, with this visit by Putin, Moscow cements support in its crusade to end the international order that resulted from the fall of the Soviet Union and Pyongyang sees its role as a regional agitator reinforced, which promises to generate more headaches. to the West and its allies in Northeast Asia.