SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a new cooperation pact that includes a pledge to assist each other if either country is attacked at a summit on Wednesday as their countries face escalating conflict with the West.
The leaders said the agreement covers areas such as security, trade, investment, cultural and humanitarian ties and could mark the strongest ties between Moscow and Pyongyang since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. They described the agreement as a major upgrade in ties between the two countries.
The meeting took place during President Putin’s first visit to North Korea in 24 years. The summit is the first for the United States and its allies to hold talks. Growing concerns over an arms deal that would see Russia supply the weapons it needs to boost its military. Ukraine War In exchange for economic aid and technology transfers that could increase the threat of Kim Jong Un’s nuclear weapons and missile programs.
Kim called the agreement the “strongest treaty ever” between the two countries, elevating their relationship to the level of an alliance, and pledged his full support for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Putin said it was a “landmark document” that reflected their shared desire to take ties to a higher level.
The North Korean leader gave Putin a lavish welcome, meeting him at the airport on Tuesday night where they shook hands and hugged each other twice before climbing into a motorcade of giant limousines and traveling through the brightly lit streets of the capital, where buildings were adorned with giant Russian flags and portraits of Putin.
After spending the night at the state guesthouse, Putin attended a welcoming ceremony in the city’s central square, which drew tens of thousands of spectators, including children holding balloons and people wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the red, white and blue of the Russian and North Korean flags. Huge crowds lined the streets to greet Putin’s motorcade, chanting “Welcome Putin” and waving flowers and North Korean and Russian flags.
Putin and Kim Jong Un saluted a guard of honor and walked down a red carpet before Kim Jong Un introduced key members of the leadership, including Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, close aide and ruling party secretary Jo Yong Won, and his powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong.
As the meeting began, Putin thanked Kim for North Korea’s support for the war in Ukraine, which he said was part of “the fight against the imperialist hegemonic policies of the United States and its satellites against the Russian Federation.”
Putin praised ties between the two countries that date back to Soviet troops fighting Japanese forces on the Korean peninsula at the end of World War II and Moscow’s support for Pyongyang during the Korean War.
Kim said the “warm friendship” between Moscow and Pyongyang was now even closer than it was in Soviet times, and promised “full support and solidarity to the Russian government, military and people as they conduct special military operations in Ukraine to safeguard sovereignty, security interests and territorial integrity.”
It was not immediately clear what that assistance would consist of. Kim has used similar language in the past, consistently saying North Korea supports Russia’s legitimate actions to defend its interests and blaming the crisis on the “hegemonic policies” of the U.S.-led Western powers.
North Korea is under heavy sanctions from the UN Security Council over its weapons programs, while Russia is under sanctions from the United States and its Western allies over its invasion of Ukraine.
U.S. and South Korean officials have accused North Korea of providing Russia with artillery, missiles and other military equipment for use in Ukraine, possibly in exchange for key military technology and assistance. Both Pyongyang and Moscow deny the accusations of North Korean arms transfers that would violate multiple U.N. Security Council sanctions that Russia has previously approved.
Russia, along with China, has lent political protection to Kim Jong Un’s ongoing efforts to build up his nuclear arsenal and has repeatedly blocked U.S.-led efforts to impose new UN sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear tests.
In March, Russia’s veto in the United Nations Russia has ended its monitoring of UN sanctions over North Korea’s nuclear program, prompting Western countries to accuse it of trying to circumvent the sanctions to buy weapons from North Korea for use in Ukraine.
Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, told reporters in Pyongyang that the two leaders exchanged gifts after the meeting. Putin presented Kim with a Russian-made Aurus limousine, a tea set and a naval officer’s dagger, among other gifts. Ushakov said Kim’s gifts to Putin also included works of art depicting the Russian leader.
Russian media had earlier reported that Kim Jong Un would host a welcoming party for Putin, who was due to leave for Vietnam on Wednesday evening.
Putin said the partnership would include security as well as political, trade, investment, cultural and humanitarian cooperation, adding that Russia did not rule out pursuing military-technical cooperation with North Korea under the agreement.
The two leaders also signed an agreement to build a road bridge on the border, as well as cooperation in the fields of healthcare, medical education and science, according to the Kremlin’s website.
Kim Jong Un was quoted as saying the agreement was of a peaceful and defensive nature. “There is no doubt that this agreement will be a driving force in accelerating the creation of a new multipolar world,” he was quoted as saying.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Putin’s visit to North Korea showed Russia was “desperately seeking to develop and strengthen ties with countries that can provide it with what it needs to continue the war of aggression it has launched against Ukraine”.
North Korea may also ignore U.N. Security Council sanctions and increase labor exports to Russia and other illicit activities to earn foreign currency, according to a recent report by the Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank run by South Korea’s main spy agency. Discussions are likely to include expanding cooperation in agriculture, fishing and mining, as well as promoting Russian tourism to North Korea, the institute said.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula have reached their highest point in years, with Kim Jong Un and the Korean peninsula’s leaders Weapons Testing and Joint Military Exercises The chain of retaliation between the United States, South Korea and Japan is intensifying.
The two Koreas have also engaged in Cold War-style psychological warfare, with North Korea dropping tons of garbage into South Korea using balloons and South Korea broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda over loudspeakers.
