CNN
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President Vladimir Putin said Russia and North Korea had elevated ties to a “new level” and the two countries pledged to help each other if either country was attacked in a “groundbreaking” new partnership announced during a rare visit by the Russian president to the isolated North.
Thousands of North Koreans chanted “Welcome Putin” and lined the city’s wide boulevards, waving Russian and North Korean flags and bouquets of flowers, as Putin began his first visit to North Korea in 24 years with a meticulous choreography that demonstrated his influence in the authoritarian regime.
The two countries then signed a new strategic partnership replacing previous agreements signed in 1961, 2000 and 2001. “The comprehensive partnership agreement signed today includes, among other things, the provision of mutual assistance in case one of the parties to the agreement comes under attack,” Putin said after the meeting, according to Russian state news agency TASS.
He said the agreement “covers political, trade, investment, cultural and security spheres,” calling it a “truly groundbreaking document.”
Putin described the joint US, South Korea and Japan military exercises as “hostile” towards North Korea and US policy as “confrontational,” while Kim called the new “alliance” a “turning point in the development of bilateral relations.”
But the agreement between the two autocrats also raised many questions, including whether Russia’s nuclear deterrent would extend to North Korea and vice versa, and whether the two countries would conduct joint military exercises in the future.
Putin was greeted by cheering crowds of mounted soldiers, soldiers and children holding balloons at a welcoming ceremony at Kim Il Sung Square in the heart of the North Korean capital, with large portraits of the two leaders as a backdrop.
The two leaders introduced their respective representatives and stood together as the Russian national anthem was played, before climbing side by side into an open-top limousine and leaving, smiling and waving to the crowds.
The staging reflected North Korea’s reliance on Moscow and was likely intended to remind the West that Putin still retains significant influence in at least some parts of the world, even after his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Relations between the two countries are also important to Russia. Several governments have accused North Korea of supplying weapons to Moscow for the war raging in Ukraine, a charge both countries deny despite substantial evidence of such transfers.
According to Russian state media, Putin presented Kim Jong Un with an Aurus car when the two leaders exchanged gifts on Wednesday, the second time Putin has given the model to Kim. Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov said Putin also gave Kim a tea set. Ushakov did not say what Putin received but said “it was another nice gift.”
Putin arrived in North Korea early Wednesday local time, exactly 24 years after his last visit to Pyongyang, in a visit that signaled deepening ties between the two countries in the face of shared hostility toward the West and international concerns about growing military cooperation.
Speaking ahead of their meeting, Kim said he “fully supports and stands in solidarity with the struggle of the Russian government, military and people,” specifically pointing to Russia’s war in Ukraine to “protect its sovereignty, security and territorial stability.”
“The situation remains complex and rapidly changing, but I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate that we will strengthen strategic communication and coordinate closely with the (Russian) leadership,” Kim added.
Putin praised ties between the two countries as being based on “equality and mutual respect” and said the expected new bilateral agreement “will be the cornerstone of our relations for years to come,” according to the Russian state news agency TASS, adding that he hoped Kim would visit Moscow for the next round of talks.
As ties between the two countries deepen, there are growing concerns in both Seoul and Washington not only about arms transfers from North Korea to Russia, but also about the possibility that Moscow could transfer advanced military technology to North Korea’s heavily sanctioned weapons program.
Kim Jong Un, the third-generation leader of North Korea’s iron-fisted ruling dynasty, was visibly smiling as he welcomed Putin to the airport early on Wednesday, video footage of the Russian leader’s arrival showed.
The landmark visit marks a major boost for Kim, who has remained isolated on the global stage since the pandemic and has not hosted other world leaders in the capital.
Amid rising tensions on the Korean peninsula and growing alarm in Pyongyang over growing ties between the United States, South Korea and Japan, Kim Jong Un has become increasingly bellicose in recent months and has abandoned a long-standing policy of seeking peaceful unification with South Korea.
North Korea’s state-run media has appeared to give extensive coverage to the close relationship between Kim Jong Un and Putin, describing the two men as having “exchanged their deepest thoughts and opened their hearts to further develop (North Korea-Russia) relations” as they traveled together from the airport to the Nishikigoiyama State Guesthouse where Putin was staying.
Putin’s visit follows Kim Jong Un’s landmark visit to Russia last year, with the two leaders widely seen as opening a new chapter in relations between the two countries given Putin’s need for North Korean weapons for his ongoing offensive.
A U.S. statement in February said Russia has received more than 10,000 containers worth 260,000 tons of military or military-related materials from North Korea since September, and Russian forces have fired at least 10 North Korean-made missiles at Ukraine since September, a U.S. official said in March.
Russian leaders are widely expected to want to ensure this continued support, which may become especially urgent as delayed U.S. military aid to Ukraine begins.
Putin also sought to link today’s meeting to the historic ties between Moscow and Pyongyang. According to Russian state news agency TASS, Putin told Kim that the “achievements of previous generations” are a “good foundation for developing relations” between the two countries.
Putin last visited Pyongyang in 2000 to meet with Kim Jong Un’s late father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il. The visit, which came just weeks after Putin began his first term as president, made him the first Russian head of state to visit North Korea.
Kim Jong Un then visited Moscow in 2001, taking a nine-day train journey across Russia for talks, his second overseas trip after a visit to China.
The two countries also signed a new cooperation agreement in 2000. Unlike the 1961 document between the Soviet Union and North Korea, the new pact made no mention of mutual military defense assistance, but it was seen as an important step in reviving a strained and close relationship.
The two neighbours have deep ties on the Korean peninsula. Kim Jong Un’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung, rose to power in the late 1940s as part of a Soviet effort to establish a communist-controlled government in the north to counter the U.S.-backed regime in the south after the defeat of imperial Japanese forces in World War II.
But the once-close relationship frayed and changed over the following decades, as the Soviet Union collapsed and the new state of Russia established diplomatic ties with Seoul and supported multiple UN sanctions against North Korea’s weapons program.
The recent round of diplomacy comes as shared grievances against the West have drawn the two countries closer together, a trend that observers say has accelerated with the war in Ukraine and given North Korea a powerful ally in the United Nations Security Council.
In March, Moscow vetoed a U.N. resolution to reinstate independent monitoring of North Korea’s violations of Security Council sanctions, raising concerns that ties between the two countries could weaken control over Kim Jong Un’s illicit weapons program.
This story has been updated.
