Russian senators to ratify North Korean defense pact

MOSCOW

Russian lawmakers are set to vote Wednesday to ratify a landmark mutual defense pact with North Korea, as the West alleges that Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to support Russia in its conflict against Ukraine.

The agreement formalizes months of deepening security cooperation between the two nations, who were Communist allies throughout the Cold War.

North Korea has become one of the most vocal and important backers of Russia's full-scale offensive on Ukraine.

The West has long accused Pyongyang of supplying artillery shells and missiles to Moscow for use against Ukraine.

The latest intelligence reports, suggesting North Korea has deployed around 10,000 troops to Russia, indicate even deeper involvement in the conflict and have sparked an outcry and warnings in Seoul, Kiev, and Western capitals.

Under the strategic partnership treaty between Russia and North Korea, each country would be obligated to provide military assistance "without delay" if the other were invaded, according to statements made by their leaders when signing it in June.

"It is really a breakthrough document," Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a news conference in the North Korean capital.

He added that it provided, "among other things, for mutual assistance in case of aggression against one of the parties to this treaty."

The treaty also commits them to cooperate internationally to oppose Western sanctions and coordinate positions at the United Nations.

Putin signed the deal in June during his first trip in 24 years to North Korea, where he was welcomed by leader Kim Jong Un in a lavish ceremony.

Kim has called Putin his "closest comrade," while Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said last week that North Korea would "stand firmly by our Russian comrades until victory day."

She described Moscow's offensive against Ukraine as a "sacred struggle" and expressed confidence in Putin's "wise leadership."

'Frontline' 

Russia's Federation Council, the upper chamber of its rubber-stamp parliament, is set to approve the treaty.

It will then go back to Putin's desk for a final signature.

The ratification comes as North Korea faces growing international pressure not to send its troops into combat alongside Russia.

South Korea warned Tuesday that a substantial deployment was already near the combat zone, including in Russia's western Kursk region, where Kiev has been mounting a cross-border offensive since the summer.

"More than 10,000 North Korean soldiers are currently in Russia, and we assess that a significant portion of them are deployed to frontline areas, including Kursk," Jeon Ha-gyu, a spokesman for the South Korean Defense Ministry, said Tuesday.

North Korea has denied the deployment.

Asked directly about the reports last month, Putin did not deny that North Korean troops had been sent to Russia.

Several other Russian officials have deflected requests to comment on Western intelligence.

"The Kiev regime is trying to do everything to involve Seoul" in the conflict, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday, refusing to comment on the substance of the allegations.

Missile tests 

In exchange for sending troops, the West fears Russia is offering North Korea technological support that could advance Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.

The reclusive state fired a salvo of short-range ballistic missiles early Tuesday, according to Seoul's military, marking its second launch in days.

However, sending North Korean troops to fight against Ukraine would mark a major escalation in the conflict, more than two and a half years after Moscow launched its full-scale offensive.

Russia has seized the momentum on the battlefield this year as it advances through the eastern Donbas region, capturing a string of towns and villages amid Ukraine's struggles with manpower and ammunition shortages.

Moscow's forces took control of more territory in October than in any single month since March 2022, according to AFP analysis of data compiled by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has become increasingly frustrated at what he perceives as the West's delays in providing Ukraine with the firepower it needs to push Russia back, and over a lack of response to reports of the North Korean troop deployment.