In a “breakthrough” new cooperation established during the Russian president’s infrequent visit to the reclusive state, Vladimir Putin declared that relations between Russia and North Korea have increased to a “new level,” promising to support one another if either country is attacked.
Thousands of North Koreans lined the broad boulevards of the city, chanting “welcome Putin,” while holding bouquets of flowers and Russian and North Korean flags. Vladimir Putin began his first visit to North Korea in 24 years with a well-planned demonstration of his power within the government.
The Russian state news agency TASS said that the two then inked the new strategic alliance to replace the agreements made in 1961, 2000, and 2001. Following the meeting, Vladimir Putin stated, “Among other things, the comprehensive partnership agreement signed today includes the provision of mutual assistance in the event of aggression against one of the parties to this agreement.”
Announcing that the agreement covers the “political, trade, investment, cultural, and security spheres as well,” he described it as “truly a breakthrough document.”
Putin described joint exercises between the US, South Korea, and Japan as “hostile” toward North Korea and called US strategy “confrontational.” The new “alliance” was dubbed a “defining event in the evolution of the two countries’ relationship” by Kim.
However, there are still a lot of unanswered issues about the agreement between the two autocrats, such as whether North Korea and Russia would now engage in joint military exercises or whether Russia’s nuclear deterrence now extends to North Korea and vice versa.
Vladimir Putin’s Warm welcome in North Korea’s capital Kim Il Sung Square
Warm welcome of Russian leader Vladimir Putin in the capital of North Korea pic.twitter.com/aPLqRApGAc
— S p r i n t e r F a m i l y (@SprinterFamily) June 19, 2024
At a welcome ceremony in the center of the North Korean capital, Kim Il Sung Square, youngsters waving balloons, military people, and mounted soldiers celebrated against the backdrop of enormous images of each leader. Vladimir Putin was greeted with jubilant jubilation.
The Russian national song was playing as the two presidents introduced their respective officials and stood together. Afterward, they waved to the crowds and departed in an open-top vehicle, standing shoulder to shoulder.
The staging demonstrated North Korea’s dependence on Moscow and most likely served as a warning to the West that, despite his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Vladimir Putin still has a great deal of power in at least some parts of the globe.
Russia also places importance on the connection. Despite strong proof of such transfers, Pyongyang and Moscow have been accused by several states of providing weapons to Moscow for its bloody war in Ukraine. Both nations have refuted these accusations.
According to Russian official media, Vladimir Putin handed Kim an Aurus automobile on Wednesday during their gift-exchanging ceremony. This is the second time Putin has given his counterpart this particular car model. Putin also gave Kim a tea set, according to Yuri Ushakov, the Russian president’s assistant. Ushakov stated that these were “also good gifts,” without disclosing what Putin had received.
On Wednesday morning local time, precisely 24 years after his previous visit to Pyongyang, Vladimir Putin touched down in North Korea. This visit signaled the two nations’ growing alignment despite their mutual hostility toward the West and worries expressed by other countries about their expanding military cooperation.
Kim expressed his “complete support and solidarity with the struggles of the Russian government, military, and people” in remarks made prior to the two’s scheduled meeting. He explicitly mentioned Moscow’s conflict in Ukraine as a means of “protecting its own sovereignty, safety, and territorial stability.”
Kim continued, “Situations remain complex and dynamic, but I would like to take this opportunity to reaffirm that we will maintain our close engagement and strengthening of strategic communication with the (Russian) leadership.”
According to Russian official agency TASS, Vladimir Putin praised the two nations’ relationship as being founded on “equality and mutual respect” and declared that the anticipated new bilateral agreement would “form the basis of relations between the two states for many years to come.” In addition, he expressed his hope that Kim will come to Moscow for their next encounter.
Concerns over North Korea’s arms exports to Russia and the possibility that Moscow will transfer its superior military technologies to support Pyongyang’s heavily sanctioned nuclear program have been raised by the growing relationship in both Seoul and Washington.
“Steadfast Support” to Vladimir Putin
Video footage of the Russian leader’s arrival at the airport early on Wednesday morning saw Kim, the third-generation leader of a dynasty that has dominated North Korea with an iron fist, beaming.
Kim, who continues to be alone on the international scene and has not welcomed another world leader to his capital since the epidemic, will benefit greatly from the historic visit.
This occurs at a time when tensions are still high on the Korean Peninsula, where Kim has abandoned a long-standing strategy of pursuing peaceful reunification with South Korea and increased his use of bellicose rhetoric in recent months, alarming Pyongyang with the increased coordination between the US, South Korea, and Japan.
As they rode together from the airport to the Kumsusan State Guest House, where Vladimir Putin is staying, Kim and Putin were described by North Korea’s state media as “exchanging their pent-up innermost thoughts and opened their minds to more surely develop (North Korea-Russia) relations,” which seemed to play heavily into their close relationship.
Vladimir Putin’s visit comes after Kim’s historic journey to Russia in the previous year, when it was generally believed that the two leaders had begun a new chapter in their relationship, one based on Putin’s desire for North Korean weapons for its continued onslaught.
According to a US declaration in February, Russia has received more than 10,000 shipping containers from North Korea since September, which is the equivalent of 260,000 metric tons of weapons or material related to munitions. According to a US official in March, Russian forces have also fired at least ten missiles manufactured in North Korea into Ukraine since September.
Many believe that the Russian president is trying to make sure that this support continues, which could become even more crucial when the long-delayed American military assistance to Ukraine starts to flow.
Vladimir Putin also attempted to relate the current meeting to the historical relations between Pyongyang and Moscow. According to Russian state agency TASS, he informed Kim that the “exploits of previous generations” provided a “good basis for the development of relations” between the two countries.
Russia and North Korea’s long history
In 2000, Vladimir Putin paid his final trip to Pyongyang to meet with Kim Jong Il, the late father of Kim. Weeks after taking office for the first time, Putin became the first head of state from Russia to visit North Korea on that trip.
This is exactly what Vladimir Putin's previous visit to North Korea looked like in 2000, when he met with Kim Jong Il, the father of current leader Kim Jong Un pic.twitter.com/hfW12oL9cX
— S p r i n t e r F a m i l y (@SprinterFamily) June 18, 2024
Then, in 2001, the elder Kim traveled to Moscow for the conference, covering a vast nine days by train across Russia. This was only his second international excursion, having previously visited China.
A new cooperation agreement was also signed by the two nations in 2000. While that revised version did not mention mutual military defense support, unlike the 1961 version between the Soviet Union and North Korea, it was nevertheless regarded as a significant step toward resuming a tense and tightly knit alliance.
On the Korean Peninsula, the two neighbors are closely connected. After the Japanese imperial army was defeated in World War II, Kim’s grandfather Kim Il Sung rose to power in the late 1940s as part of Soviet efforts to establish a communist-controlled government in the north to compete with a US-backed administration in the south.
However, close ties deteriorated and changed during the ensuing decades as the Soviet Union fell apart, the newly formed Russian state established diplomatic ties with Seoul, and it backed many UN sanctions against North Korea’s nuclear development.
The most recent round of diplomatic outreach coincides with a growing closer relationship between the two nations as a result of their shared resentment of the West, a trend that many believe has been hastened by the conflict in Ukraine and has given North Korea a strong ally in the UN Security Council.
In March, Moscow vetoed a UN resolution to renew independent monitoring of North Korea’s violations of Security Council sanctions – raising concerns about the relationship weakening controls on Kim’s illegal weapons program.
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