Kim Yo Jong. File
| Photo Credit: AP

The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called South Korea’s recent front-line live-fire drills “suicidal hysteria” as she threatened unspecified military steps on July 8 if further provoked.

The warning by Kim Yo Jong came after South Korea resumed firing exercises near its tense land and sea borders with North Korea in the past two weeks. The exercises were the first of their kind since South Korea suspended a 2018 agreement with the North aimed at easing front-line military tensions in June.

“The question is why the enemy kicked off such war drills near the border, suicidal hysteria, for which they will have to sustain terrible disaster,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media.

She accused South Korea’s conservative government of deliberately escalating tensions as a way to escape a domestic political crisis. She said the riskiness of the South Korean drills is clear to everyone as they happened amid “a touch-and-go situation” established after the U.S., South Korea and Japan recently held a new trilateral military exercise that North Korea views as a security threat.

“In case it is judged according to our criteria that they violated the sovereignty of (North Korea) and committed an act tantamount to a declaration of war, our armed forces will immediately carry out its mission and duty assigned by the (North Korean) constitution,” she said, without elaborating.

Later on Monday, Koo Byoungsam, a spokesperson at South Korea’s Unification Ministry, described Kim’s statement as an attempt to trigger an internal divide in South Korea, saying that North Korea must first look at its own human rights violations and the international isolation caused by its nuclear programme.

South Korea’s Defence Ministry separately said it will continue its live-fire drills as scheduled but didn’t say when and where new exercises are planned.

North Korea has been engaged in a provocative run of weapons tests since 2022. But its two recent tests — one on a missile with “a super-large warhead” and the other on a multiwarhead missile — drew widespread skepticism from South Korean officials and experts who said North Korea likely fabricated successful launches to cover up failed tests.

In early June, South Korea fully suspend the 2018 inter-Korean military pact after North Korea flew balloons carrying manure, cigarette butts and wastepaper across the border to protest South Korean activists scattering political leaflets in the North via their own balloons.

The military agreement — reached during a short-lived era of reconciliation between the Koreas — required the two countries to cease all hostile acts at border areas, such as live-firing drills, aerial surveillance and psychological warfare. The deal had already been in the danger of collapse, with both Koreas taking steps in breach of it amid animosities over North Korea’s spy satellite launch last November.

Seoul:

Laughing and joking, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un cruised around Pyongyang last week in a Russian-made Aurus limousine to showcase their strengthened anti-Western alliance.

The luxury sedan was intended to epitomize Russia’s domestic prowess and reduced dependence on imported technology and goods when unveiled in 2018.

But customs records show that the company that builds it uses millions of dollars in imported parts, many arriving in Russia from what Kim has described as his country’s “primary foe”, South Korea.

The imports point to Russia’s ongoing reliance on Western technology as it seeks to navigate Western attempts to cut it off from global supply chains as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine.

The two leaders took turns driving the armoured limousine during Putin’s pomp-filled visit, his first in nearly a quarter of a century to North Korea, in a demonstration of the two nuclear powers’ increasingly close ties.

Russia imported equipment and components worth at least $34 million between 2018 and 2023 for assembling Aurus cars and motorcycles, customs records seen by Reuters showed. Reuters does not have access to more recent data.

The imports included car body parts, sensors, programmable controllers, switches, welding equipment and other components worth almost $15.5 million imported from South Korea. Parts were also imported from China, India, Turkey, Italy and other EU countries.

Foreign supplies for Aurus kept coming after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with goods worth almost $16 million, including $5 million produced in South Korea, imported since February 2022, the records showed.

Reuters could not determine specifically which imported foreign parts ended up in the car gifted to Kim, and the imports were not in breach of sanctions – Aurus LLC was sanctioned by the United States in February, 2024.

The Aurus sedan was developed by Russian state-owned research institute NAMI in partnership with Russian carmaker Sollers, which has since sold its stake.

Aurus Motors and its CEO Andrey Pankov did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment on the use of foreign parts, including from South Korea, in its vehicles.

GROWING PRODUCTION

The company launched official production in Russia’s Tatarstan region, around 1,000 km (620 miles) from Moscow, in 2021 – before then it was made on a small, experimental scale at NAMI. It will start additional production in St Petersburg later this year at Toyota’s former factory.

Toyota is one of many foreign carmakers to exit the Russian market since the invasion, which Russia calls a “special military operation”.

The exodus has left a gap that Chinese producers have been quick to fill, rapidly seizing more than half the market share and exposing Russia’s limited domestic production capacity.

South Korean firms were among the largest suppliers to Aurus, including industrial equipment producer Kyungki Industrial Co, car body parts manufacturer BYT CO LTD and batteries supplier Enertech International Inc.

Italian plastic parts producer Industrie Ilpea Spa and Hong Kong company Rain Electronics also supplied goods.

Kyungki Industrial Co said in a statement to Reuters on Monday that it had not signed any contract with Aurus or Russian suppliers since 2021 or participated in any further projects in Russia since 2022. It also said that it would be concerned about any potential sanctions.

A company representative had earlier told Reuters the company continued to supply Aurus and was not concerned about potential sanctions. The representative later referred Reuters to Monday’s statement.

Rain Electronics could not be reached for comment. When a Reuters correspondent visited the address listed on the internet as the company’s office in Hong Kong, there was no trace of Rain Electronics on the floor listed online or in the office building.

BYT CO LTD, Enertech International and Industrie Ilpea Spa did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

The Aurus Senat, retro-styled after the Soviet-era ZIL limousine, is Russia’s official presidential car and was used by Putin at his presidential inaugurations in 2018 and 2024.

Putin has now given Kim, believed to be a keen automobile fan, two Aurus cars, first during Kim’s visit to Russia in February, and a slightly different model in North Korea in June.

Prices for Aurus cars – there are four models including an SUV and armoured version – start from 46.625 million roubles ($528,356). Customers include Turkmenistan President Serdar Berdymukhamedov.

Aurus sold 107 cars in Russia in 2023, according to data from Russian analytical agency Autostat. Aurus does not disclose production numbers.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Seoul:

Parasites from human faeces and defaced Western clothing were found in the bags of garbage carried by North Korean balloons into the South, Seoul said Monday.

Pyongyang has sent more than a thousand trash-carrying balloons into the South in recent weeks, in retaliation for leaflets sent northwards by activists opposed to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

An analysis of the contents of some 70 of the balloons found that they contained soil in which “numerous parasites, such as roundworms, whipworms and threadworms” were detected, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification said in a statement.

This is likely because human faeces were used in the soil instead of chemical fertilizers, it added.

It said there was “no risk of land pollution (or) infectious diseases” from the balloons, as the volume of soil sent was relatively low.

The garbage sent by North Korea also revealed the country’s woeful economic state, the ministry claimed, pointing to tattered children’s clothes and other garments worn to the point of disintegration as evidence.

In addition, it said some clothes from the balloons were previously donated by a South Korean company during an aid drive and were deliberately defaced — including being slashed with knives.

This appeared to be North Korea “expressing extreme hostility toward the leaflet campaigns and to highlight the adversarial stance against South Korea”, a ministry official said.

The two Koreas have been locked in a tit-for-tat “balloon war”, with an activist in the South confirming last week that he had floated more balloons carrying propaganda leaflets towards the North.

Immediately after, Kim Yo Jong, leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister, warned that North Korea is likely to retaliate.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The USS Theodore Roosevelt. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A nuclear-powered United States aircraft carrier arrived on June 22 in South Korea for a three-way exercise stepping up their military training to cope with North Korean threats that escalated with its alignment with Russia.

The arrival of the USS Theodore Roosevelt strike group in Busan came a day after South Korea summoned the Russian Ambassador to protest a pact reached between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this week that pledges mutual defence assistance in the event of war.

South Korea says the deal poses a threat to its security and warned that it could consider sending arms to Ukraine to help fight off the Russian invasion as a response — a move that would surely ruin its relations with Moscow.

Following a meeting between their defence chiefs in Singapore earlier in June, the United States, South Korea and Japan announced Freedom Edge. The new multidomain exercise is aimed at sharpening the countries’ combined response in various areas of operation, including air, sea and cyberspace.

The Theodore Roosevelt strike group will participate in the exercise that is expected to start within June. South Korea’s military didn’t immediately confirm specific details of the training.

South Korea’s navy said in a statement that the arrival of Theodore Roosevelt demonstrates the strong defence posture of the allies and “stern willingness to respond to advancing North Korean threats.” The carrier’s visit comes seven months after another U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, came to South Korea in a show of strength against the North.

The Theodore Roosevelt strike group also participated in a three-way exercise with South Korean and Japanese naval forces in April in the disputed East China Sea, where worries about China’s territorial claims are rising.

In the face of growing North Korean threats, the United States, South Korea and Japan have expanded their combined training and boosted the visibility of strategic U.S. military assets in the region, seeking to intimidate the North. The United States and South Korea have also been updating their nuclear deterrence strategies, with Seoul seeking stronger assurances that Washington would swiftly and decisively use its nuclear capabilities to defend its ally from a North Korean nuclear attack.

A video showing Russian President Vladimir Putin waving goodbye to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un through the window of his private jet has gone viral on social media. The Kremlin leader arrived at Pyongyang’s airport early Wednesday. The two leaders spent more than 10 hours together during the one-day visit, as per TASS News agency. From feeding carrots to a horse to taking turns driving each other around in a Russian-built Aurus limousine, both of them were spotted enjoying each other’s company. In the end, Putin was also seen waving goodbye to Kim Jong Un from a plane in Pyongyang. 

In the video, shared on X (formerly Twitter), Vladimir Putin was seen peeping through the airplane window and waving at the North Korean leader. “Putin and Kim Jong Un emotional goodbye,” an X user wrote while sharing the clip. 

Take a look below: 

Putin and Kim Jong Un emotional goodbye pic.twitter.com/3IufORS27H

— HANDS OF DOOM (@handsofdoomtoy) June 21, 2024

Notably, the Russian President’s visit was his first to the country in 24 years. During the visit, they two held wide and one-on-one talks and attended a wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial to soldiers of the Red Army killed in action liberating Korea in World War Two. The two also bonded over animals as Kim fed carrots to a horse while Putin patted it on its head. They also took turns driving each other around in a Russian-built Aurus limousine on Wednesday.

 According to reports, Putin had gifted Kim the Russian-built limousine in February this year and has again gifted him the same vehicle. Kim, who is believed to be a keen automobile enthusiast, now has at least two of the vehicles. 

Also Read | Watch: Putin Takes Kim Jong Un On Drive In Limousine, Later Gifts Him Car

In return, the North Korean leader gave the Russian President a pair of Pungsan dogs, a local breed. Kim and Putin were seen looking at the dogs, who were tied to a rose-covered fence, during a segment aired on the state-controlled Korean Central Television on Thursday. 

Kim described Putin as “the dearest friend of Korean people” and Putin thanked the host nation and its leadership for their “balanced stance” in regard of “the situation on Ukrainian direction,” The Independent reported. 

The leaders of North Korea and Russia also signed an agreement that deepens their military cooperation to include a mutual defence pledge to help each other if attacked, with Kim Jong Un calling the new ties an “alliance”.

A TV screen shows a file image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang, during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, on June 21, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

With no obvious options, China appears to be keeping its distance as Russia and North Korea move closer to each other with a new defence pact that could tilt the balance of power among the three authoritarian states.

Experts say China’s leaders are likely fretting over the potential loss of influence over North Korea after its leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the deal this week, and how that could increase instability on the Korean Peninsula. But Beijing may also be struggling to come up with a response because of its conflicting goals: keeping peace in the Koreas while countering the U.S. and its Western allies on the global stage.

Beijing so far has not commented on the deal — which requires both countries to provide defence assistance if the other is attacked — and only reiterated boilerplate statements that it seeks to uphold peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and advance a political settlement of the North-South divide.

The Chinese response has been “very weak,” said Victor Cha, senior vice president for Asia and Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, adding that it could be a sign that Beijing doesn’t yet know what to do.

“Every option is a bad option,” he said. “You’re either unable to make a decision because of very strongly held competing views or … you’re just incapable of making a decision because you just don’t know how to evaluate the situation.”

What’s behind the Russia-North Korea security pact? | Explained

Some in Beijing may welcome the Russia-North Korea partnership as a way of pushing back at America’s dominance in world affairs, but Mr. Cha said that “there is also a great deal of discomfort” in China, which doesn’t want to lose its sway over its neighbour to Russia, doesn’t want to see a destabilizing nuclear power on its doorstep, and doesn’t want to bring the conflict in Europe to Asia.

But China isn’t raising these concerns publicly. “They don’t want to push Kim Jong Un further into the arms of Vladimir Putin,” Mr. Cha said, referring to the leaders of the two countries.

Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, declined to comment on the new agreement. “The cooperation between Russia and the DPRK is a matter between two sovereign states. We do not have information on the relevant matter,” he said, referring to North Korea by the initials for its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

John Kirby, the White House national security spokesman, told reporters that the pact between Russia and North Korea “should be of concern to any country that believes that the U.N. Security Council resolutions ought to be abided by.” The Security Council has imposed sanctions on North Korea to try to stop its development of nuclear weapons.

Mr. Kirby also said the agreement “should be of concern to anybody who thinks that supporting the people of Ukraine is an important thing to do. And we would think that that concern would be shared by the People’s Republic of China.”

One area that China could be concerned about is whether Russia will help North Korea’s weapons program by sharing advanced technology, said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.

“If China is indeed concerned, it has leverage in both Russia and North Korea and it could probably try to put some limitations to that relationship,” he said.

The meeting between Putin and Kim this week was the latest chapter in decades of complicated political and military relationships in East Asia, where the Chinese Communist Party, once an underdog, has emerged as a leading power that wields influence over both North Korea and Russia.

That and other developments have raised alarms in the U.S. that Beijing, now the world’s second-largest economy, could challenge the U.S.-led world order by aligning itself with countries such as Russia, North Korea and Iran. Beijing has rejected that allegation.

Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, said Beijing doesn’t want to form a three-way alliance with North Korea and Russia, because it “needs to keep its options open.”

Such a coalition could mean a new Cold War, something Beijing says it is determined to avoid, and locking itself to Pyongyang and Moscow would be contrary to China’s goals of maintaining relationships with Europe and improving ties with Japan and South Korea, she said.

Ms. Sun added that the rapprochement between North Korea and Moscow “opens up possibilities and potentials of uncertainty, but based on what has happened so far, I don’t think that China’s national interests have been undercut by this.”

Closer ties between Putin and Kim could weaken Beijing’s sway and leave it as the “biggest loser,” said Danny Russel, who was the top U.S. diplomat for Asia in the Obama administration.

“Apart from irritation over Putin’s intrusion into what most Chinese consider their sphere of influence, the real cost to China is that Russia’s embrace gives North Korea greater impunity and room to maneuver without consideration to Beijing’s interests,” he said.

Russel, now vice president for international security and diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said that Kim is eager to reduce his country’s dependence on China.

“The dilution of Chinese leverage means Kim Jong Un can disregard Beijing’s calls for restraint,” he said, “and that is much more likely to create chaos at a time when (Chinese leader) Xi Jinping desperately wants stability.”

A TV screen shows an image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin during a news program, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, on June 19, 2024. North Korean leader Kim promised full support for Russia’s war in Ukraine before beginning a one-on-one meeting with Russian President Putin in Pyongyang on Wednesday, in a bid to expand their economic and military cooperation and show a united front against Washington.
| Photo Credit: AP

South Korea said on June 20 that it would consider sending arms to Ukraine, a major policy change suggested after Russia and North Korea rattled the region and beyond by signing a pact to come to each other’s defense in the event of war.

The comments from a senior presidential official came hours after North Korea’s state media released the details of the agreement, which observers said could mark the strongest connection between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War. It comes at a time when Russia faces growing isolation over its war in Ukraine and both countries face escalating standoffs with the West.

According to the text of the deal published by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, if either country gets invaded and is pushed into a state of war, the other must deploy “all means at its disposal without delay” to provide “military and other assistance.” But the agreement also says that such actions must be in accordance with the laws of both countries and Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which recognizes a U.N. member state’s right to self-defense.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the pact at a summit on June 19 in Pyongyang. Both described it as a major upgrade of bilateral relations, covering security, trade, investment, cultural and humanitarian ties.

The office of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol issued a statement condemning the agreement, calling it a threat to the South’s security and a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, and warned that it would have negative consequences on Seoul’s relations with Moscow.

“It’s absurd that two parties with a history of launching wars of invasion — the Korean War and the war in Ukraine — are now vowing mutual military cooperation on the premise of a preemptive attack by the international community that will never happen,” Mr. Yoon’s office said.

Mr. Yoon’s national security adviser, Chang Ho-jin, said Seoul would reconsider the issue of providing arms to Ukraine to help the country fight off Russia’s invasion.

South Korea, a growing arms exporter with a well-equipped military backed by the United States, has provided humanitarian aid and other support to Ukraine while joining U.S.-led economic sanctions against Moscow. But it has not directly provided arms to Kyiv, citing a longstanding policy of not supplying weapons to countries actively engaged in conflict.

The summit between Kim and Putin came as the U.S. and its allies expressed growing concern over a possible arms arrangement in which Pyongyang provides Moscow with badly needed munitions for its war in Ukraine, in exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers that could enhance the threat posed by Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile program.

Following their summit, Mr. Kim said the two countries had a “fiery friendship,” and that the deal was their “strongest-ever treaty,” putting the relationship at the level of an alliance. He vowed full support for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Mr. Putin called it a “breakthrough document” reflecting shared desires to move relations to a higher level.

North Korea and the former Soviet Union signed a treaty in 1961, which experts say necessitated Moscow’s military intervention if the North came under attack. The deal was discarded after the collapse of the USSR, replaced by one in 2000 that offered weaker security assurances.

There’s ongoing debate on how strong of a security commitment the deal entails. While some analysts see the agreement as a full restoration of the countries’ Cold War-era alliance, others say the deal seems more symbolic than substantial.

Ankit Panda, a senior analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the text appeared to be carefully worded as to not imply automatic military invention.

But “the big picture here is that both sides are willing to put down on paper, and show the world, just how widely they intend to expand the scope of their cooperation,” he said.

The deal was made as Mr. Putin visited North Korea for the first time in 24 years, a trip that showcased their personal and geopolitical ties with Kim hugging Putin twice at the airport, their motorcade rolling past giant Russian flags and Putin portraits, and a welcoming ceremony at Pyongyang’s main square attended by what appeared to be tens of thousands of spectators.

According to KCNA, the agreement also states that Pyongyang and Moscow must not enter into agreements with third parties if they infringe on the “core interests” of any of them and must not participate in actions that threaten those interests.

KCNA said the agreement requires the countries to take steps to prepare joint measures for the purpose of strengthening their defense capabilities to prevent war and protect regional and global peace and security. The agency didn’t specify what those steps are, or whether they would include combined military training and other cooperation.

The agreement also calls for the countries to actively cooperate in efforts to establish a “just and multipolar new world order,” KCNA said, underscoring how the countries are aligning in face of their separate confrontations with the United States.

How the pact affects Russia’s relations with the South is a key development to watch, said Jenny Town, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington and director of the North Korea-focused 38 North website.

“Seoul had already signed onto sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, souring its relations with Moscow. Now with any ambiguity of Russia’s partnership with North Korea removed, how will Seoul respond?” she said. “Is there a point where it decides to cut or suspend diplomatic ties with Russia or expel its ambassador? And have we reached it?”

Mr. Kim in recent months has made Russia his priority as he pushes a foreign policy aimed at expanding relations with countries confronting Washington, embracing the idea of a “new Cold War” and trying to display a united front in Putin’s broader conflicts with the West.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest point in years, with the pace of both Mr. Kim’s weapons tests and combined military exercises involving the U.S., South Korea and Japan intensifying in a tit-for-tat cycle.

The Koreas also have engaged in Cold War-style psychological warfare that involved North Korea dropping tons of trash on the South with balloons, and the South broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda with its loudspeakers.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un pet dogs during a walk in the garden of the Kumsusan Guesthouse in Pyongyang, North Korea in this image released by the Korean Central News Agency on June 20, 2024.
| Photo Credit: KCNA via Reuters

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a pair of Pungsan dogs, a local breed, state media KCNA reported on June 20.

Mr. Kim and Mr. Putin were seen looking at the dogs, who were tied to a rose-covered fence, during a segment aired on the state-controlled Korean Central Television on Thursday.

Also Read | The quick transformation of Russia-North Korea ties 

The two bonded over animals as Mr. Kim fed carrots to a horse while Mr. Putin patted it on its head.

Mr. Kim, a horseman, was famously pictured riding a white stallion in Mount Paektu during snowfall in photos released by state media in 2019, flooding the internet with memes.

He was seen riding a white horse again in a propaganda video in 2022.

The horses Mr. Kim rode are symbolic for North Korea, which named its economic effort to recover from the 1950-53 Korean War after the mythical winged horse Chollima. The country’s latest rocket booster is also named Chollima-1.

Mr. Putin, who prizes his sporty image, has also been pictured shirtless several times in photos released by Russian state media, including one set in which he rode a brown horse while wearing wrap-around sunglasses, a gold chain and army trousers.

Pungsans are a breed of hunting dogs native to a region in northern North Korea.

Also Read | A timeline of the complicated relations between Russia and North Korea

Former South Korean president Moon Jae-in also received a pair of white Pungsans — named “Gomi” and “Songgang” — from Mr. Kim in 2018 during a breakthrough in inter-Korean relations.

In 2022, a freight train carrying 30 grey thoroughbred horses heading to North Korea departed Russia’s far east through the Khasan-Tumangan crossing, according to Russia’s veterinary service, in what appeared to be the first reported train shipment between the two countries post-pandemic.

Putin gifts second Russian luxury limousine to Kim

Earlier on June 19, Vladimir Putin gifted a second Aurus luxury limousine to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, as the two countries announced a breakthrough in their strategic partnership during the Russian President’s rare visit to the reclusive state.

Mr. Putin, 71, gave Mr. Kim an Aurus luxury car when the two leaders exchanged gifts, according to Russian state media – the second time Mr. Putin has given his counterpart this car model. According to Mr. Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov, the Russian leader also presented Kim with a tea set. Mr. Ushakov did not specify what Mr. Putin received, but said they were “also good gifts.” “They have already exchanged gifts,” he said. “We gave an Aurus,” Mr. Ushakov told Tass news agency without specifying the model. “Yes, this is the second one, not the third [we have given to Kim], the second, for sure,” he added.

Later, Mr. Putin took Mr. Kim, 40, for a spin in the Russian-made Aurus car to cap their day of talks.

Photos released by Russian media showed Mr. Putin and Mr. Kim taking turns to take the wheel in the new Aurus around the guest house following the summit talks.

Mr. Putin showed a model of an Aurus Motors executive car to the North Korean leader last September during Mr. Kim’s visit to the Vostochny Cosmodrome space launch site in the Amur Region in Russia’s Far East.

In February this year, Mr. Putin gifted an Aurus to Mr. Kim. He became the first leader to receive it as a gift, Tass reported without revealing the model.

“When the leader of the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] was at the Vostochny Cosmodrome spaceport, he saw this car; Mr. Putin personally showed it to him. Like many [auto enthusiasts], he liked the car, and so the decision was made (to present it to him as a gift),” Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in February.

In May, Mr. Putin presented King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa with a long version of the Aurus car, Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov said.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that giving a vehicle as a gift to Mr. Kim constitutes a violation of UN Security Council sanctions banning the supply, sale and transfer of luxury items to North Korea, under Resolution 2397 adopted in December 2017.

The resolution was adopted unanimously on December 22, 2017, in response to North Korea’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile on November 28 of that year.

Aurus is the first Russian luxury car brand, which started to be built in 2013 under a contract with the Industry and Trade Ministry. The project calls for the development of vehicles both to replace current cars used by senior government officials and for sale to the general public.

Seoul:

North Korea’s state media on Thursday unveiled the full text of a mutual defence pact signed a day ago by its leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which Kim said would elevate bilateral ties to something akin to an “alliance”.

Formally named “Treaty on the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership”, the pact takes effect upon ratification unless either side suspends it.

Here are some key points of the agreement:

– Develop a permanent partnership based on the principles of mutual respect for national sovereignty, non-aggression on territory, non-interference in internal affairs and equality, as well as other international legal principles.

– Aim for global strategic stability and a fair and equal new international order, and strengthen strategic and tactical cooperation.

– Activate communication channels without delay if either side faces a direct threat of potential armed aggression.

– Immediately provide military and other assistance using all available means if either side is in a state of war, in line with Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, which covers the individual or collective right of states to self-defence against armed attack.

– Not sign any treaty with a third country that infringes on the other side’s core interests, or allow territories to be used by a third country seeking to violate the other’s security and sovereignty.

– Support peace-loving policies to protect sovereignty, security and stability, and actively cooperate in building a just and multipolar new world order.

– Cooperate at the U.N. and other international organisations on issues of mutual interest and security, and support each other’s accession to relevant entities.

– Prepare measures to take joint actions to strengthen defence capabilities with the aim of preventing war and ensuring regional and international peace and security.

– Work together to tackle challenges and threats on the areas of strategic significance, including food, energy security, information and communication technology, climate change, health and supply chains.

– Expand cooperation in trade, economy, investment and science and technology, support both sides’ special or free economic zones, and develop exchanges and joint research in science and technology, including space, biology, peaceful use of nuclear energy, artificial intelligence and information technology.

– Support regional and cross-border cooperation, and create favourable conditions for establishing direct economic and trade links between both sides’ border regions, such as by forming business bodies and holding forums and exhibitions.

– Strengthen exchanges in agriculture, education, health, sports, culture and tourism, and seek cooperation in environmental protection, natural disaster prevention and elimination of their consequences.

– Promote mutual recognition of product standards, test records and quality certificates, and develop expert training and exchanges of test results.

– Protect the legal rights and interests of the other party’s legal entities and citizens, and cooperate in providing legal assistance, extradition and transfer of persons, as well as returning assets obtained through criminal methods.

– Deepen exchanges of legislative and law enforcement institutions.

– Oppose unilateral coercive measures targeting each side as illegal and in violation of the U.N. Charter and international legal norms, and coordinate efforts to block them.

– Work together to tackle challenges and threats in the areas of international terrorism, extremism, transnational organised crimes, human trafficking, hostage-taking, illegal immigration, illegal flows of funds, money laundering, financing for dissemination of weapons of mass destruction, illegal acts that pose a threat to the safety of civil aviation and maritime navigation, and production and distribution of drugs and psychotropic products.

– Promote cooperation on information security, advocate equal rights in managing information and communication networks, and oppose the misuse of such technologies to tarnish the dignity and image of sovereign countries and infringe on their rights.

– Promote cooperation in the field of public affairs and publication, and encourage the dissemination of each other’s literature.

– Supply objective information about each other, and work together to combat false information and provocative propaganda activities.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un walk during a farewell ceremony upon Mr. Putin’s departure at an airport in Pyongyang, North Korea June 19, 2024.
| Photo Credit: via Reuters

A new agreement between Russia and North Korea reached by their leaders requires the countries to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance in the event of war, North Korean state media said.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency on Thursday reported the language of the comprehensive strategic partnership agreement reached by its leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang on Wednesday. The agency said Article 4 of the agreement states that if one of the countries gets invaded and is pushed into a state of war, the other must deploy “all means at its disposal without delay” to provide “military and other assistance”.

The deal could mark the strongest connection between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War. Both Mr. Kim and Mr. Putin described it as a major upgrade of their relations, covering security, trade, investment, cultural and humanitarian ties.

The summit came as the U.S. and its allies expressed growing concerns over a possible arms arrangement in which Pyongyang provides Moscow with badly needed munitions for its war in Ukraine, in exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers that could enhance the threat posed by Mr. Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile programme.

Following their summit, Mr. Kim said the two countries had a “fiery friendship”, and that the deal was their “strongest-ever treaty”, putting the relationship at the level of an alliance. He vowed full support for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Mr. Putin called it a “breakthrough document” reflecting shared desires to move relations to a higher level.

North Korea and the former Soviet Union signed a treaty in 1961, which experts say necessitated Moscow’s military intervention if the North came under attack. The deal was discarded after the collapse of the USSR, replaced by one in 2000 that offered weaker security assurances.

South Korean officials said they were still interpreting the results of the summit, including what Russia’s response might be if the North comes under attack, and whether the new deal promises a similar level of protection with the 1961 treaty. South Korean officials didn’t immediately comment on the North Korean report about the details of the deal.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest point in years, with the pace of both Kim’s weapons tests and combined military exercises involving the US, South Korea and Japan intensifying in a tit-for-tat cycle.

The Koreas also have engaged in Cold War-style psychological warfare that involved North Korea dropping tons of trash on the South with balloons, and the South broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda with its loudspeakers.