North Korea ratified a major defense treaty with Russia stipulating mutual military aid, the North’s state media reported Tuesday, as the US, South Korea and Ukraine say Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to Russia to help it fight Ukraine.
Russia had completed the ratification of the treaty last week after it was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June. It is considered both countries’ biggest defense deal since the end of the Cold War.
The Comprehensive Strategic Partnership treaty will take effect when both sides exchange documents on the ratification, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said.
North Korea ratified the treaty through a decree signed Monday by the country's president of state affairs, KCNA said, using one of Kim's titles.
North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament, the Supreme People’s Assembly, has the right to ratify treaties but Kim can unilaterally ratify major ones, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry.
The treaty requires both countries to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance if either is attacked. It also calls for the two countries to actively cooperate in efforts to establish a “just and multipolar new world order” and strengthen cooperation on various sectors including peaceful atomic energy, space, food supply, trade and economy.
Some observers speculate the treaty’s ratification in both countries could signal North Korea could formally enter the Russia-Ukraine war soon.
According to US, South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence assessments, up to 12,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia likely as part of the June treaty. Last week, Ukrainian officials said Ukraine and North Korean troops engaged in small-scale fighting while Ukraine’s army fired artillery at North Korean soldiers in Russia’s Kursk border region.
"With bilateral ratifications, Pyongyang and Moscow will claim legitimacy for North Korea's military deployment to Russia, arguing that this action is justified by the ratified treaty between the two," said Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification.
"While their treaty does not override UN resolutions prohibiting such cooperation, they will assert its legitimacy based on their agreement," Hong added.
"This raises the prospect of additional, potentially larger deployments of North Korean manpower to Russia in the future."
