North Korea has ratified a landmark mutual defence treaty with Russia, state media has announced, as international concern grows over increasing military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang.

Kim Jong Un, the leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – North Korea’s official name – signed a decree to ratify the Treaty of Comprehensive Strategic Partnerships with Russia on Monday. The agreement will take effect when both sides exchange the ratification instruments, according to North Korea’s official news agency, KCNA.

The treaty, first signed in Pyongyang on June 19 during a lavish state visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin, obliges both countries to provide immediate military assistance to each other using “all means” necessary if either faces “aggression”.

When he agreed on the accord with Putin in June, Kim touted the agreement as a step towards elevating bilateral ties between the two countries and described the military pact as something akin to an “alliance” between Russia and North Korea.

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, ride an Aurus car in Pyongyang, North Korea in this image released by the Korean Central News Agency on June 20, 2024 [KCNA via Reuters]

Russia’s parliament ratified the treaty on November 6, amid

months of growing security cooperation with North Korea including the reported transfer of weapons to Russia and the deployment of thousands of North Korean soldiers to support Russia’s war in Ukraine.

South Korean, US and Ukrainian intelligence have said that at least 11,000 North Korean soldiers have been sent to fight on the front lines against Ukrainian forces. Most of the North Korean troops have been deployed to Russia’s Kursk region, which has been under partial Ukrainian control since Kyiv’s surprise incursion into Russian territory in August.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that Moscow has assembled a force of 50,000 soldiers – including North Korean soldiers – in Kursk, as it prepares to launch a major assault and reclaim territory lost to Ukrainian forces in the region bordering Ukraine.

Moscow and Pyongyang have yet to directly comment on the presence of North Korean soldiers in Russia, but the implications of such a move have raised concern among the international community and among NATO members in Europe.

Zelenskyy last week condemned the West’s weak response to Pyongyang’s involvement in the conflict and warned that a “new page in instability in the world” had been opened after his country’s forces engaged North Korean troops in battles for the first time, reportedly inflicting casualties.

For South Korea, still technically at war with its northern neighbour, the cooperation with Russia by its primary foe has raised fears Pyongyang could receive advanced nuclear technology from Moscow in return for its support in Ukraine.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol warned earlier this month that he may send arms to Ukraine if North Korean soldiers are not withdrawn from Russia.

“If North Korea dispatches special forces to the Ukraine war as part of Russia-North Korea cooperation, we will support Ukraine in stages and also review and implement measures necessary for security on the Korean Peninsula,” Yoon said.