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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and President Vladimir Putin of Russia walk side-by-side at a welcome ceremony for Putin and his delegation held at Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea, on June 18, 2024. (AFP/Yonhap)

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an agreement outlining a comprehensive strategic partnership after their summit in Pyongyang on Wednesday. Kim claimed the two countries had moved into an alliance relationship, while Putin said they’d pledged to provide mutual assistance in the event of an attack, with both leaders emphasizing a substantial upgrade in their level of bilateral cooperation.

Following a private and an expanded meeting lasting for about three hours and 30 minutes at the Kumsusan State Guesthouse in Pyongyang on Wednesday afternoon, Kim and Putin announced in a joint press briefing that they’d signed an agreement for a comprehensive strategic partnership.

Putin said the new agreement arranged for the two countries to provide mutual assistance in the event that either country comes under attack. It’s unclear whether Putin’s reference to “mutual assistance” restores the idea of automatic military intervention that featured in North Korea’s defense pact with the Soviet Union from 1961 or whether it’s a stronger version of the pledge to immediately contact, deliberate and cooperate in the friendship treaty concluded by Russia and the Soviet Union in February 2000.

“Relations between our countries have risen to a new high level of alliance,” Kim said, according to a Kremlin readout. “I express deep satisfaction that the great interstate treaty, which meets the strategic nature of relations between the DPRK and the Russian Federation in the new era, was concluded only nine months after Comrade President Putin and I discussed the signing of a new interstate treaty at the Vostochny Cosmodrome last September.”

In contrast with Kim, Putin didn’t use the expression “alliance” a single time in their joint announcement to the press. Putin said the new agreement was a “breakthrough” one that “raise[d]” the two countries’ relationship “to a new qualitative level,” while adding that it “does not rule out developing military and technical cooperation.” Kim described the signing of the new agreement as “a historic event” and said he would “seek cooperation, including in military affairs,” according to Russian media outlets.

During opening remarks in his expanded meeting with Putin, Kim said that the North “fully supports and expresses solidarity with the Russian government, army and people who are waging the special military operation in Ukraine to protect their sovereignty, security interests and territorial integrity.” He also reaffirmed Pyongyang’s “unwavering support for Russian policy as a whole.”

Putin was quoted by the Kremlin as saying that he and others in Russia “highly value” North Korea’s “consistent and unwavering support for Russian policy, including in relation to Ukraine.”

The Interfax news agency and others reported that Putin invited Kim to join him in Moscow for their next meeting.

This visit to North Korea was Putin’s first in 24 years, following a previous visit in July 2000. Putin and Kim’s last summit was nine months ago, at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East last September.

Putin was originally supposed to arrive in Pyongyang on Tuesday evening, but it was not until 2:22 am on Wednesday morning that he arrived at the Pyongyang Sunan International Airport, where he was greeted by Kim. Putin wrapped up what was essentially a day trip to North Korea and headed to his next destination of Hanoi, Vietnam, on Wednesday evening.

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer

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