North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivers a speech to the displaced residents from the flood-hit areas, on their arrival in Pyongyang, North Korea on Aug. 15, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reaffirmed a pledge to deepen cooperation with Russia in a message to President Vladimir Putin as Pyongyang marked an anniversary of independence from Japan’s colonial rule, KCNA state news agency said on Friday (August 16, 2024).

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

It was in reply to a message of congratulations from Putin on the Aug. 15 liberation day anniversary where the Russian leader said the bond forged as Soviet soldiers fought against Japan continues to serve as the basis of their ties, KCNA said.

“The friendly feelings of the armies and peoples of the two countries forged and deepened in the bloody struggle against the common enemy serve as a strong driving force for developing … relations of friendship and cooperation into comprehensive strategic partnership and invincible comradeship,” Kim said.

Kim and Putin held a second summit meeting in less than a year in June in Pyongyang, signing a pact on “comprehensive strategic partnership” that includes a mutual defence agreement.

It came amid accusations by South Korea, Ukraine and the United States that Kim is helping Russia in the war against Ukraine by supplying rockets and missiles in return for economic and other military assistance from Moscow.

Kim visited a memorial honoring the Korean revolutionary soldiers who fought in resistance to Japan to end the 1910-1945 colonial rule and the Liberation Tower where Soviet Red Army soldiers are remembered, KCNA said.

North Korea’s state founder Kim Il Sung, who is the current leader’s grandfather, was backed by Soviet Union General Secretary Joseph Stalin who declared war against Japan near the end of World War Two.

The Soviets backed Kim’s communist forces that eventually established North Korea after Korea’s liberation in 1945.

North Korean state media made no mention of a blueprint for unification announced by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday, calling for dialogue with Pyongyang and proposing an international conference on North Korea’s human rights.

Coming at one of the lowest points in the two Koreas’ ties, Yoon’s blueprint was accepted with scepticism among some experts, who doubt whether it is realistic to expect Pyongyang to see it as anything other than an existential threat to its regime.

On Friday, South Korea’s Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho, who oversees inter-Korea relations, said he disagreed with those who say North Korea will reject the plan if it responds at all.

“I believe North Korea will carefully review our government proposal,” he told a briefing.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presents a pair of Pungsan dogs to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang, North Korea on Wednesday. (Image provided by Korean State media)
| Photo Credit: AP via KCNA

The story so far: Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a “comprehensive strategic” partnership deal with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang on Wednesday as the two countries sought to deepen their security ties in a bid to challenge the West-dominated world order.

Mr. Putin was on a two-day visit to North Korea – his first in 24 years – and signed the deal that has been hailed as the “strongest between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War” by experts. Kim Jong-un has called it a ‘breakthrough” pact.

Also Read:Kim Jong Un was ‘sincere’ in denuclearisation talks: former South Korea president

What are the historical relations between Russia and North Korea?

Ties between Pyongyang and Moscow go back to the Soviet times. The Soviet Union was the first nation to recognise North Korea, or the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), when it came into existence in 1948 under Kim Jong-un’s grandfather, Kim Il-sung. Moscow supported DPRK in the 1950-53 Korean War while the U.S. supported the Republic of Korea (ROK), or South Korea. In a previously classified letter, which is now available in Wilson Centre’s digital archives, Kim Il-sung thanked Soviet leader Joseph Stalin for his “invaluable assistance” to DPRK’s “struggle for independence.”

Stalin’s support for DPRK in the Korean War, however, also benefited the leader’s larger ambition to push back the U.S. in the Cold War, which was evident from another “top secret” letter he wrote under the codename “Fillipov” in 1950. “One might ask why we have now returned to the Security Council. We have returned to continue exposing the aggressive policy of the American government and to prevent it from using the flag of the Security Council as a smokescreen for its aggression. Now that America has become aggressively involved in Korea, it will be very easy to achieve this goal while in the Security Council. I think that this is clear and needs no further explanation,” Stalin said in a letter to the Soviet ambassador in Prague.

Also Read: Russia and North Korea sign partnership deal, vowing closer ties as rivalry deepens with West

Initially robust, relations between the countries declined as the rift between China and Russia grew after the Korean War ended. The Soviet Union also established diplomatic relations with ROK, further isolating DPRK in the region. Russia, which succeeded the Soviet Union, continued these diplomatic relations.

Mr. Putin’s election as President of Russia in 2000, however, somewhat turned the tide in favour of DPRK. After his election, he visited Pyongyang in July 2000, to meet Kim Jong-II, former leader of DPRK and Kim Jong-un’s father, and the two issued a joint criticism of U.S. missile defence plans.

In 2012, Russia agreed to write off 90% of North Korea’s estimated $11 billion debt, although Russia supported UN Security Council sanctions against the North between 2016 and 2017 as Kim Jong-un accelerated the country’s nuclear and missile tests. Kim-Jong un, in fact, attempted to improve his diplomatic ties with the U.S. and ROK in favour of his nuclear programme, while also working on relations with historical allies China and Russia.

Strategic visits by North Korean leaders to Russia are also symbolic of the cooperation between the two countries. Kim Jong-iI visited Russia in 2001, 2002, and in 2010; while his son and current leader Kim Jong-un visited Russia in 2019 and 2023. The two countries also share a land border.

What does the new deal entail?

According to DPRK’s state-run Korean Central News Agency, Kim Jong-un and Mr. Putin discussed a “series of important plans for safeguarding the common core interests while deepening the strategic partnership and alliance relations between the two countries.” The pact, officially called the “Treaty on the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation,” calls for immediate military and other assistance “using all available means” if either party is involved in a war, which it claims is in alignment with Article 51 of the U.N. charter (dealing with self-defence.)

The treaty also talks about building a “just and multipolar new world order,” and taking joint actions to strengthen defence capabilities. Food, which is a chronic area of shortage for the DPRK, also finds mention in the treaty.

What does the deal mean in the current geopolitical context?

North Korea has, time and again, expressed its support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that started in February 2022, alluding to a crucial positive era in its relationship with Russia. In July 2022, North Korea recognised Donetsk and Luhansk, in Ukraine’s Donbas region, as independent States after Russia and Syria did so. (Both these regions were annexed by Russia in September that year.) DPRK has, in the past, also blamed the Russia-Ukraine crisis on U.S.-led West’s “hegemonic policy”.

The U.S. and South Korea believe DPRK has been supplying Russia artillery, missiles and other military equipment for use in Ukraine, as Russia continues to wage the largest land war in Europe since the end of the Second World War. Russia, which has a vibrant military-industrial base, is reportedly sourcing weapons from North Korea and Iran, while the U.S. and European nations continue to assist Ukraine.

In October 2023, Beyond Parallel, a U.S.-based think tank, reported a “dramatic increase” in freight rail traffic on the land border between Russia and DPRK following a summit between Mr. Kim and Mr. Putin. “Given that Kim and Putin discussed some military exchanges and cooperation at their recent summit, the dramatic increase in rail traffic likely indicates North Korea’s supply of arms and munitions to Russia. However, the extensive use of tarps to cover the shipping crates/containers and equipment makes it impossible to conclusively identify what is seen at (North Korea’s) Tumangang Rail Facility,” the organisation said. Both Russia and North Korea have denied any weapons sale. Experts also believe North Korea is leveraging high-tech nuclear weapons and missile technologies from Russia in exchange for the arms.

Russia has also been a significant supplier of energy to North Korea— even more important after it suffered huge losses in revenue as Europe cut off trade with the country following its invasion of Ukraine. U.S., as a common adversary, also brings Russia and North Korea together as both countries attempt to create a shift in global power away from the West, with China on their side.