Both Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have announced that they have committed to a new strategic partnership, without however revealing details of the specific agreement, the interpretation of which is causing interest in the West.

The pact requires the two countries to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance in the event of war, according to state media. North Korea. While the agreement, signed Wednesday at a summit in Pyongyang, could be described as the strongest agreement between the two countries signed since the Cold War, there are differing views on how strong the security commitment is.

THE Kim Jong Un argued that the agreement strengthened bilateral relations at the level of an alliance, while Putin was more reserved, avoiding calling it an alliance.

North Korean state media published the text of the agreement, which also includes broader cooperation in the military, foreign policy and trade. THE Russia has not published the text.

Relations between geographically large Russia and small, isolated North Korea – both nuclear powers – have warmed significantly in recent years amid Russia’s growing rivalry with the West over its invasion of Ukraine and crackdown on all domestic opposition.

The first negative reaction to the deal came from South Korea, with the government saying it would review its policy of limiting support to Ukraine with non-lethal supplies. South Korea, as an arms exporter, has provided humanitarian aid to Ukraine, but not military supplies.

Meanwhile, from Vietnam, Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia may supply weapons to North Korea in response to Western military aid to Ukraine.

The promises between Russia and North Korea

Most of the partnership agreement discussion revolves around the article promising mutual aid. According to North Korea’s state media, the article in question states that if one of the countries is invaded and becomes involved in a state of war, the other must deploy “all means at its disposal without delay” to provide “military and other help”.

But it also says such actions must be in accordance with the laws of both countries and Article 51 of the UN Charter, which recognizes a UN member state’s right to self-defence.

Analysts estimate that this commitment is a renewal of an older part of one 1961 treaty between North Korea and the Soviet Union. This agreement was scrapped after the collapse of the USSR and was replaced in 2000 by one that offered fewer security guarantees.

Cheong Seong Chang, an analyst at South Korea’s Sejong Institute, said the agreement echoes the language of the 1961 treaty, as well as provisions in the US-South Korea mutual defense treaty about activating coordination channels if either country faces threat of invasion.

“North Korea and Russia have fully restored their military alliance from the Cold War era,” Cheong said.

Other analysts were more cautious in their interpretations, saying the mutual aid report is carefully worded to avoid automatic interventions and strictly limits the circumstances under which each country should intervene.

Although it is rare for any defense treaty to specifically require a country to automatically intervene to defend a partner under attack, the strength of the commitment can be signaled in other ways, such as the cooperation between the US and South Korea where thousands of US troops are stationed in South Korea and work closely together on training and weapons systems, analysts say. But Russia, for example, has no troop presence in North Korea, and the countries have no proven track record of joint military activities and coordination, other than alleged munitions transfers from the North to Russia.

The fact that the article invokes countries’ domestic laws and the UN Charter may reflect that Russia has tried to limit its defense obligation to very narrow terms: when it is clear that North Korea did not instigate the attack, when the attack on North Korea is legally characterized in Russia as a “war” and when the defense aid Pyongyang must provide is justified by the UN.

What kind of military cooperation is possible?

Putin said he “will not rule out the development of military-technical cooperation with the DPRK in accordance with the document signed.”

This statement effectively formalizes something that Western countries claim is already happening. The US and other allies claim Russia has received ballistic missiles and munitions from North Korea as the war in Ukraine depletes Moscow’s stockpile, while Russia has retaliated by transferring technology to Pyongyang that could bolster its looming threat. from Kim Jong Un’s nuclear weapons and missile program.

North Korean state media also said the deal requires the countries to take steps to boost their joint defense capabilities, but did not specify what those steps would be or whether they would include joint military training.

The agreement also calls on the countries to actively cooperate in efforts to create a “just and multipolar new world order,” North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said, underscoring how the countries are aligning as they face separate, escalating confrontations with the United States and allies. her.

What is the economic aspect of the pact?

The partnership also requires developing economic ties, a particularly important issue for North Korea as it suffers from a series of international sanctions. North Korea needs food, industrial materials and other goods and in turn can supply labor to Russia’s war-weary workforce. These workers could then convert the ruble wages into dollars or euros, potentially becoming a source of the hard currency that North Korea desperately needs.

Such activities, however, violate UN sanctions. Hours before arriving in North Korea, Putin had pledged in a media op-ed that the countries would overcome sanctions together. Russia has been sanctioned by the West for its invasion of Ukraine.

Putin said that Russia-North Korea trade turnover has increased ninefold in the past year, but admitted that the amount remains “modest”.