North Korea has ratified a historic defense agreement with Russia, sealing its rapprochement in the context of the war led by Moscow in Ukraine, the official North Korean news agency KCNA reported on Tuesday, November 12.
The agreement “was ratified in the form of a decree” signed by the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, on November 11, KCNA specifies, a day after the announcement in Moscow that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, also signed this mutual defense treaty.
This treaty, signed during a rare visit by Vladimir Putin to Pyongyang in June, between these two countries, the nightmare of the United States, provides in particular “immediate military aid” reciprocal in the event of an attack against one of the two countries.
According to kyiv, some 11,000 North Korean soldiers are already deployed in Russia and have begun fighting the Ukrainians on Russian territory, in the Kursk region, a small part of which has been occupied by Ukrainian forces on the offensive since August. The Kremlin has so far evaded questions about this presence of North Korean reinforcements.
Coordination of their positions.
The agreement formalizes months of deepening security cooperation between the two countries, communist allies during the Cold War.
Russia and North Korea have grown significantly closer since Russia’s attack on Ukraine began in 2022.
The agreement also commits the two countries to cooperate internationally to oppose Western sanctions and coordinate their positions at the United Nations.
North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui recently visited Moscow, where she said her country “I would stand firmly with the Russian comrades until Victory Day”. He described the offensive against Ukraine as “sacred fight” and praised the wisdom of Vladimir Putin.
