S. Korea condemns Putin-Kim deal promising mutual defense assistance

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea said Thursday it would consider sending weapons to Ukraine, a major policy shift suggested after Russia and North Korea shook the region and beyond. sign a pact defend each other in the event of war.

The comments from a senior presidential official come hours after North Korean state media published details of the deal, which observers say could mark the strongest bond between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War. It comes at a time when Russia faces increasing isolation over its war in Ukraine and both countries face growing confrontations with the West.

According to the text of the agreement According to the official North Korean news agency, if one of the two countries is invaded and pushed into a state of war, the other must deploy “all means at its disposal without delay” to provide “military assistance and other “. But the agreement also states that such actions must comply 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 agreement during a summit on Wednesday in Pyongyang. Both described it as a major improvement in bilateral relations, covering security, trade, investment, cultural and humanitarian ties.

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

“It is absurd that two parties with a history of launching wars of invasion – the Korean War and the War in Ukraine – are now committing to mutual military cooperation on the basis of a pre-emptive attack by the international community which will never happen,” Yoon’s office said. .

At the United Nations in New York, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul called it “deplorable” that Russia is acting in violation of multiple U.N. sanctions resolutions against North Korea for which Moscow voted.

Yoon’s national security adviser Chang Ho-jin said Seoul would reconsider providing weapons to Ukraine to help the country fight the Russian invasion.

South Korea, a growing arms exporter with a well-equipped, U.S.-backed military, has provided humanitarian aid and other support to Ukraine while joining US economic sanctions against Moscow. But it has not directly supplied weapons to kyiv, citing a long-standing policy of not supplying weapons to countries actively engaged in conflict.

Speaking to reporters in Hanoi, where he visited just after Pyongyang, Putin said Thursday that supplying weapons to Ukraine would be “a very big mistake” for South Korea.

“I hope that doesn’t happen.” If this happens, then we will make relevant decisions that are unlikely to please the current leadership of South Korea,” he said.

South Korea “should not be worried” about the agreement between Moscow and Pyongyang, he said, adding that it involves “nothing new” and simply replaces an old pact from the 1960s that expired .

The new agreement calls for military assistance “only if aggression is committed against” one of the parties, and South Korea, “to my knowledge, does not provide for aggression against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, which means that it should We are not afraid of our cooperation in this area,” Putin said.

At the same time, Moscow does not rule out supplying weapons to North Korea in response to Western arms deliveries to Ukraine, which is carrying out strikes on Russian territory, Putin said.

“Those who supply these weapons (to Ukraine) believe that they are not fighting with us. So I said, including in Pyongyang, that in this case we reserve the right to supply weapons to other regions of the world. Taking into account our agreements with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, I do not exclude this possibility,” Putin said.

The summit between Kim and Putin took place as the United States and its allies expressed growing concern on a possible arms deal under which Pyongyang would provide Moscow with badly needed munitions war in Ukrainein exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers that could increase the threat posed by Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile program.

After their summit, Kim said the two countries enjoyed an “ardent friendship” and that the agreement was the “strongest treaty ever signed”, elevating the relationship to the level of an alliance. He pledged his full support for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Putin called it a “revolutionary document” reflecting the common desire to raise relations to a higher level.

North Korea and the former Soviet Union signed a treaty in 1961 that experts said required military intervention by Moscow if the North was attacked. The deal was abandoned after the collapse of the USSR, replaced by a deal in 2000 that offered weaker security guarantees.

There is an ongoing debate over the strength of the security commitment implied by the agreement. While some analysts view the agreement as a complete restoration of the two countries’ Cold War-era alliance, others say the deal appears more symbolic than substantive.

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

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

The deal came as 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 procession rolling past giant Russian flags and portraits of Putin, and a welcome ceremony. on the main square of Pyongyang, in the presence of tens of thousands of spectators.

According to KCNA, the agreement also stipulates that Pyongyang and Moscow must not enter into agreements with third parties if they harm the “core interests” of either of them and must not participate in actions that threaten these interests.

KCNA said the agreement requires countries to take steps to prepare joint measures with the aim of strengthening their defense capabilities to prevent war and protect regional and global peace and security. The agency did not specify what those measures were, or whether they would include combined military training and other forms of cooperation.

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

How the deal 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 website 38 North.

“Seoul had already signed sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, which deteriorated its relations with Moscow. Now that all ambiguity over the partnership between Russia and North Korea has been resolved, what will Seoul’s reaction be? she says. “Is there a moment when it decides to cut or suspend diplomatic relations with Russia or to expel its ambassador? And have we achieved it?

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

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest level in years, as Kim attacks pace combined weapons tests and military exercises involving the United States, South Korea and Japan, escalating in a tit-for-tat cycle.

The Koreas also engaged in Cold War-style psychological warfare, in which North Korea dropped tons of trash on the South with balloons and the South spread anti-North Korean propaganda with its speakers.

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Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed.