Putin and Kim Jong-Un sign military pact amid Ukraine war tension
Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un signed an agreement on a "comprehensive partnership," which includes military cooperation. Will North Korea join the war with Ukraine? Meduza decided to answer this question.
4:37 PM EDT, June 21, 2024
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) published the full text of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement, which Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed on June 19.
This occurred during the first visit by a Russian president to North Korea since 2000. During Putin's previous official visit to the DPRK, Moscow and Pyongyang signed a Treaty of Friendship, Good-Neighborliness, and Cooperation.
What does this agreement entail? According to the independent portal Meduza, the agreement includes declarations of willingness to support each other and actual deliveries of hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of missiles for attacks on Ukraine.
In the event of the threat of armed aggression, the countries agreed to assist each other and coordinate actions; in the case of an armed attack on one of the parties, the other shall promptly provide "all means of military assistance" - Russian journalists found out.
As noted by the South Korean agency Yonhap, the article concerning military assistance in the new treaty almost verbatim repeats the wording from the first article of the "Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance" concluded between the DPRK and the USSR in 1961. Only some details in the text have changed.
Will North Korea join the war?
It is not entirely clear whether the agreement with the DPRK means that Pyongyang is ready to openly join the war on the side of the Russian Federation - and whether this is even possible.
Firstly, the condition for assisting in the treaty is an attack by one or more states on the ally. And in the case of Ukraine, it was Russia that attacked (although the Russian authorities are trying to turn the situation upside down).
Secondly, the ally must be "in a state of war". Russia formally still claims it is not at war but conducting something else - a "special military operation".
