Defense Treaty Between North Korea and Russia Raises Alarm Over War Escalation
North Korea officially ratified a major defense pact with Russia that mandates mutual military assistance in the event of an attack. North Korean troops have already been deployed to Ukraine and the defense agreement raises alarm bells that their involvement will deepen, leading to increased military support for Russia and an escalation of the conflict. The alliance also raises concerns about potential Russian transfers of advanced technology that could bolster North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.
Sung-Yoon Lee, a global fellow with the Wilson Center’s Indo-Pacific Program, provides an overview of the treaty and assesses its impact. He talks about the implications of this alliance for regional and global stability, the concerns it raises for South Korea, Japan, and the United States, and how North Korea’s military support bolsters Russia’s position in the conflict against Ukraine.
Video Transcript
Defense Treaty Between North Korea and Russia Raises Alarm Over War Escalation
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
The treaty that Putin signed in Pyongyang with Kim Jong UN is a military pact. The crux of the treaty is article four, which states quite clearly that if either party is, quote, put into a state of war, by an invasion, by an individual state or several states, the other will provide immediately without delay military assistance with all means in its possession.
It can't be any clearer. That is an automatic intervention clause. A military treaty, basically the same one as the one between the Soviet Union and North Korea, a sign back in July 1961. So this is a major escalation and a message to the world that Putin and Kim are in the same boat. Both Putin and Kim gain leverage, vis-a-vis their enemies and other more neutral states around the world.
Putin, I would recommend, would have promised Kim the provision of sensitive military technology like nuclear powered submarine technology, intercontinental ballistic missile technology and so on, military satellite technology. And of course, Kim has promised not only the delivery of tens of thousands of containers filled with perhaps some 10 million North Korean artillery shells and ballistic missiles, but also human lives, North Korean troops. So it's a major escalation by both dictators, by Putin and Kim.
South Korea is concerned because this new military pact, now put into force and action by the two dictators, by Putin and Kim, does not augur well for South Korea's peace in the future. Kim Jong Un, the North Korean dictator, likes to resort to calculated escalation provocation, including limited but lethal attacks on the peaceful south. And now, in any such reckless campaigns that Kim wages against the peaceful South Korean state and its people, Putin is obliged to back Kim Jong Un's campaigns of reckless provocations. And that, of course, is a cause for concern for the United States, which is a staunch ally of South Korea and also Japan, a major player in the region.
So I would think both Kim, for now, both Kim and Putin feel emboldened to stay the course on the war against Ukraine and for Kim's campaign of escalation and warmongering rhetoric and provocations against South Korea.
Guest
Sung-Yoon Lee
Former Kim Koo-Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Studies and Assistant Professor, the Fletcher School, Tufts University
Hosted By
Indo-Pacific Program
The Indo-Pacific Program promotes policy debate and intellectual discussions on US interests in the Asia-Pacific as well as political, economic, security, and social issues relating to the world’s most populous and economically dynamic region. Read more
