North Korea and the Cold War: A Strategic Partnership Accord between the United States, the Soviet Union, and the Central Powers of the Second SPS-S Korea Summit

Their upcoming meeting, the second in nine months, is a sign of the two countries’ deepened political and military partnership, which was forged over Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Putin wrote a letter to the Rodong Sinmun newspaper in North Korea praising the country for its backing of Russia’s fight against the US and its allies.

North Korea previously had an alliance treaty with the Soviet Union that stipulated automatic involvement in case of an attack on either of the countries. In 2000 a lower-level treaty with Russia succeeded in taking down the Soviet Union.

South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said in a recent interview that North Korea could have shipped as many as 5 million shells and dozens of ballistic missiles to Russia.

Russia is paying for military supplies with food and fuel, which is not known for being altruistic. Kim is clearly interested in Russia’s space and missile technologies. Putin may well oblige in embracing his new friend, Kim.

He pledged the two countries will “develop alternative trade and mutual settlement mechanisms not controlled by the West” and “build an equal and indivisible security architecture in Eurasia” while increasing people-to-people exchanges.

The strategic partnership treaty between Putin and Kim was signed after their summit in North Korea.

Kim said that his country appreciated the mission and role of Russia in maintaining strategic stability and balance in the world.

Jenny Town, director of the Korea Program at the Stimson Center, said that if the two countries agreed to a bigger military cooperation, they wouldn’t make a big deal out of it.

Many of North Korea’s active military activities are under UN sanctions, but the country also stresses self-reliance and shuns being dependent on other countries.

She says that Russia is trying to upend the system, while China is still trying to be a part of it.

Ahead of Putin’s arrival in Pyongyang, China held high-level talks with South Korea. And the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea held a trilateral summit last month for the first time in over four years.

China and Russia seem to agree that North Korea is a country that has a nuclear arsenal, according to Town.

The US and its allies will find it hard to get North Korea back to denuclearization talks with an arms race and erosion of international rules.

Putin’s Cold War bid for global power: To Run the World: the Kremlin’s response to Putin, China and the United States

Sergey Radchenko is the Wilson E. Schmidt distinguished professor at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is based at SAIS-Europe, in Bologna, Italy. Cambridge University Press published his new book, To Run the World: the Kremlin’s Cold War bid for global power.

Kim Kimung Un is playing the host. He has become an equal partner for the first time in Moscow- Pyongyang relations. He no longer feels the need to beg the Russians. Putin is there to attend to his wishes, and, in turn, grasp a helping hand.

It didn’t go well. The North Korean invasion of the South or, as Putin now conveniently calls it, Pyongyang’s “patriotic war of liberation,” triggered U.S. involvement and ultimately China’s intervention, too. It was the Chinese that managed to push the advancing U.S. and United Nations troops back to the 38th parallel. The fighting ended with a cease-fire in 1953, despite being technically still at war.

In the mid-sixties, Kim unleashed a purge of the Workers’ Party of Korea in response to his opponents whom he suspected of being pro-Russian and Chinese. Kim got away with his purge and embraced what Pyongyang called juche (a form of self-reliance). It was not actually self-reliant in economic terms. The North Koreans were dependent on their two sponsors, the China and the USSR.

The Soviets were worried that Kim would implicate the Soviet Union, and that was why they often looked with frustration and annoyance. When the relationship began to fracture in the late 1980s, only the hard-line Stalinists shed any tears. The rest of Russia looked to South Korea.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 changed the Kremlin’s game in Korea. South Korea joined the U.S. led sanctions against Russia. In July of this year, South Korea’s president traveled to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to show his support.

A lot has changed since Foreign Minister Kim Yong Nam accused Shevardnadze of discarding North Korea like a pair of “worn-out shoes,” more than three decades ago. Putin took the shoes out of the garbage bin and put them back on. He likes the way it looks.

A new treaty signed by Russia and North Korea formalizes their military and diplomatic cooperation.

In a press conference, Putin said the agreement includes mutual assistance in case of an aggression against one of the signatories.

The full scope of the treaty and other agreements signed on Wednesday are not publicized. Some people in North Korea question the longevity of the bilateral ties.

The United States and its allies are concerned that the two ostracized countries would be helped by a growing military partnership.

The Secretary of State in Washington and the NATO Secretary General both said that the war in Russia is being fought by other countries. “If they succeed in Ukraine, it will make us more vulnerable and the world more dangerous,” he said.

Kim Jong Un meets with Russia in the heat wave: Towards a strategic interaction between Russia and the United States in the 21-nuclear war zone

The two were together in a Russian car that flew Russian flags and welcoming banners along the streets of the capital.

The welcoming ceremony for North Korea was put on by the government in the middle of a heat wave, with military guards, honor guards and North Korean citizens waving flowers and flags.

The situation globally is changing rapidly as it becomes more challenging, said Kim Jong Un at the expanded meeting. Against this background, we are set to strengthen strategic interaction with Russia, with the Russian leadership as we go forward,” according to Russia’s Tass news agency.

He further promised “full support and solidarity with the Russian government, army and people in carrying out the special military operation in Ukraine to protect the sovereignty, security interests and territorial integrity,” according to Sputnik.