North Korea and Russia sign 'strategic partnership' during summit
Kim Jong Un says deal with Putin raises ties to 'alliance' level
SEOUL -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday signed a comprehensive agreement to elevate bilateral relations, in a step toward establishing a framework for deeper long-term cooperation between their heavily sanctioned countries.
Kim said at a joint press conference that the two sides had signed a "strategic partnership" agreement that upgrades their ties "to the level of an alliance."
Interfax, a Russian news agency, said the agreement replaces basic documents from 1961, 2000 and 2001.
Putin arrived in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang early Wednesday morning for a summit with Kim, his second visit there following one in 2000. In recent years the two states have dramatically increased diplomatic contact and trade as both have found themselves constricted by ever-tighter international sanctions.
"Putin's personal visit is a strong message to the Korean Peninsula and the world that he is supportive of Kim and North Korea and that their cooperation is not only solid but will expand," Chun In-bum, a former South Korean special forces commander, told Nikkei Asia.
"They are attempting to establish a new world order and a new economic trade bloc," Chun said. "That won't be easy, but as long as they're faced with a free world led by democracies, they've found a common interest in creating an alternative."
Footage from North Korean state television showed Putin and Kim shaking hands during a welcome ceremony in a public square in Pyongyang. They then walked past cheering crowds and soldiers to greet a long line of North Korean dignitaries, including Kim Yo Jong, the leader's sister who is also a prominent official.
Early on Wednesday, the official Korean Central News Agency published a glowing dispatch celebrating Putin's post-midnight arrival, describing the airport where his plane landed as "decked in festive attire" to welcome "the highest state guest."
Kim personally welcomed his visitor on the tarmac and the two embraced. Both countries' national flags fluttered from street lights along Pyongyang's roads, and the two traveled together to a state guest house in Putin's car, KCNA said.
"Passing through charmingly lit streets of Pyongyang at night, the top leaders exchanged their pent-up inmost thoughts and opened their minds to more surely develop the [North Korea]-Russia relations," the agency reported.
The leaders last met in Russia's Far East in September. South Korean and Western intelligence agencies have posited that North Korea has supplied weapons to Russian troops in Ukraine, and analysts have said Moscow is providing technical assistance for North Korea's budding satellite program.
KCNA described relations between the countries as a "strategic fortress" and "an engine for accelerating the building of a new multipolar world."
"'Multipolar world' is code in Russia and China for eroding the U.S.-led international order, basing cooperation on transactional benefits rather than trust and prioritizing regime interests over the public good," said Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.
Easley said that Moscow-Pyongyang ties hold significance far beyond their borders.
"More is at stake than relations between Russia and North Korea or the parochial agendas of their leaders. The integrity of the international order is in question over the defense of Ukraine and the implementation of U.N. Security Council resolutions," Easley said in a message to reporters.
North Korea and Russia are under heavy international sanctions: Russia as a consequence of its invasion of Ukraine, and North Korea as part of the international community's efforts to restrict its ability to fund its missile and nuclear weapons programs.
Ahead of his arrival, Putin, writing on Tuesday in the Rodong Sinmun -- the official newspaper of North Korea's Workers' Party -- expressed thanks to the North for supporting Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine and for its "solidarity" and "common path" on "key international issues" at the United Nations.
Accompanying Putin in Pyongyang is an entourage of high-ranking Russian officials, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Minister of Defense Andrei Belousov, according to KCNA.
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters that Putin's visit shows he is trying "in desperation, to develop and to strengthen relations with countries that can provide [Russia] with what it needs to continue the war of aggression that it started against Ukraine. ... North Korea is providing significant munitions to Russia."
Appearing with Blinken, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Putin's visit to North Korea "demonstrates and confirms the very close alignment between Russia and authoritarian states like North Korea, but also China and Iran. And this also demonstrates that our security is not regional. It's global."
NATO plans a summit in Washington next month, and Stoltenberg said he will use the gathering to "further strengthen our partnership with our partners in the Asia-Pacific region -- Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan."