Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday signed a new partnership that includes a vow of mutual aid if either country faces “aggression,” in a pact that came as both face escalating standoffs with the West.
Details of the deal were not immediately clear, but it could mark the strongest connection between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War. Both leaders described it as a major upgrade of their relations, covering security, trade, investment and cultural and humanitarian ties.
The two met as Putin visited North Korea for the first time in 24 years. The summit came as the U.S. and its allies express growing concerns over a possible arms arrangement in which the country provides Moscow with badly needed munitions for its war in Ukraine in exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers that could enhance the threat posed by Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile program.
Kim said the two countries had a “fiery friendship,” and that the deal was the “strongest ever treaty” between them, putting the relationship at the level of an alliance. He vowed full support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Putin said that it was a “breakthrough document” reflecting shared desire to move relations to a higher level.
North Korea and the former Soviet Union signed a treaty in 1961, which experts say necessitated Moscow’s military intervention if the North came under an attack.
The deal was discarded after the collapse of the USSR, replaced by a pact in 2000 that offered weaker security assurances. It wasn’t immediately clear if the new deal provides a similar level of protection as the 1961 treaty.
Kim gave Putin a lavish welcome, meeting him at the airport, where the two shook hands, hugged twice and rode together in a limousine. The huge motorcade rolled through the capital’s brightly lit streets, where buildings were decorated with giant Russian flags and portraits of Putin.
