The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, have signed a pact that includes a clause requiring the countries to come to each other’s aid if either is attacked.
The inclusion of a mutual defence clause in their comprehensive strategic partnership, which Kim described as an “alliance”, will add to the west’s alarm over growing economic and military ties between North Korea and Russia. The deal was finalised on Wednesday after hours of talks in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. It is Putin’s second summit with Kim in nine months.
“The comprehensive partnership agreement signed today provides, among other things, for mutual assistance in the event of aggression against one of the parties to this agreement,” Putin was quoted as saying by the Russian state news agency, Tass, as he made his first visit to North Korea in 24 years.
It was not immediately clear what form that support might take, and no details of the agreement were made public. Putin later described the pact as “defensive”, citing North Korea’s right to defend itself, Tass reported. He added that Russia would not rule out developing military-technical cooperation with North Korea.
Kim, speaking after the signing ceremony, called the deal the “strongest ever treaty” signed between the two countries, elevating their relationship to the “higher level of an alliance”. The pact would lead to closer political, economic and military cooperation, he said, hailing the agreement as “accelerating the creation of a new multipolar world”.
Putin’s visit has been closely watched by the US and South Korea amid concern that growing military cooperation between the isolated, sanctions-hit states could boost the Kremlin’s war effort in Ukraine and add to tensions on the Korean peninsula.
In Washington, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said Putin’s visit highlighted Russia’s attempts, “in desperation, to develop and to strengthen relations with countries that can provide it with what it needs to continue the war of aggression that it started against Ukraine”.
Blinken added: “North Korea is providing significant munitions to Russia … and other weapons for use in Ukraine. Iran has been providing weaponry, including drones, that have been used against civilians and civilian infrastructure.”
Last September, during a summit with Putin in Vladivostok, Kim is believed to have agreed to supply missiles and other weaponry for use by Russian forces in Ukraine. In return, Russia would provide food and energy aid and help with North Korea’s space programme.
Putin was met at Pyongyang’s international airport by Kim in the early hours of Wednesday before they were driven through the capital’s brightly lit streets past buildings decorated with Russian flags and portraits of the Russian leader.
Hours later, they attended a welcoming ceremony in Kim Il-sung Square, where they saluted a guard of honour and walked across a red carpet to meet important members of Kim’s inner circle, including the foreign minister, Choe Son-hui, and Kim’s influential sister, Kim Yo-jong.
Tens of thousands of spectators had packed into the square, including children holding balloons and people wearing coordinated T-shirts in the red, white and blue of the Russian and North Korean flags.
Speaking at the start of the talks, Putin thanked Kim for North Korea’s support for his war in Ukraine, calling it part of a wider “fight against the imperialist hegemonistic policies of the US and its satellites against the Russian Federation”.
The two leaders exchanged gifts: a luxury Russian-made Aurus limo and tea set for Kim, and items for Putin that Kremlin aides said were related to his image, “including busts”.
Putin later drove Kim through Pyongyang in the Aurus limo.