Russia pact with North Korea will protect us both from aggression, says Putin | BBC News

Russia pact with North Korea will protect us both from aggression, says Putin | BBC News

now there are two world leaders who were seen by many as outcasts on the global stage today they came together Russia’s Vladimir Putin traveled to North Korea to meet k Kim Jong-un in pongyang there was a red carpet welcome for Mr Putin for his first visit to the country in 24 years it was full of ceremony complete with red roses crowds and a grand military parade Russian State media is reporting that a partnership agreement’s been signed with North Korea on Wednesday and they said it was Defensive in nature it quoted him as saying North Korea had a right to defend itself he was speaking after talks which Mr Putin had said covered security and international issues meanwhile Mr Kim’s been delivering remarks and he called Russia the most honest friend and Ally referring to President Putin as the dearest friend of the Korean people well the two leaders also exchanged gifts during that visit with Mr Kim receiving a te set and a luxury russian-made aurus car an aid to the Kremlin said now the Kremlin did not say yet what Gifts Mr Putin had received but hinted they were related to Vladimir Putin’s image including busts well this is what Russian president Mr Putin had to say about Kim jong’s support for the war in Ukraine we highly appreciate your consistent and unwavering support for Russian policy including the Ukrainian Direction I mean our fight against the honic imperialist policy imposed for decades by the United States and its satellites toward the Russian Federation now we can speak to David O from the BBC Korean Service who joins me live from Soul um you’ve covered North and South Korea’s relationship for a long time first of all what is is the perspective on this meeting today from the South Korean side yes I have to tell say that I’ve been seen this quite unusual picture as you also show so that the Putin and Vadim Putin and Kim Jong together shaking hands I mean we saw them in last September last year but as you mentioned this it’s it’s been more than 20 decade two decades that Vladimir Putin went p himself and they had a uh more more than two hours of a meeting today and after the meeting they signed an agreement and this is very important we know this say signed agreement that is called comprehensive strategic partnership but we still don’t know what that exactly means some details are emerging from the news reports that Russian um news report saying that Putin was quoted saying this is the Breakthrough document and kimjun was quoted saying this is the strongest opport trity but what does that means for for instance the the war in Ukraine is that means that North Korea will be actively engaging war in and Ukraine we still don’t know but now some details are emerging and that uh people are comparing that this agreement uh similar to the agreement they signed in 1961 before Soviet Union and that that agreement was uh finished by when South Korea uh made a diplomatic ties within Russia in 1990s so is that means that the two countries are becoming close than ever in 1990s I think that’s the possibility and we have to wait and see okay David O insult thank you very much for joining us well let’s take a broader look at that meeting and see how another close Ally of Russia China feels about this visit well joining me now is our China correspondent Laura beer who’s been following developments from Beijing Laura first of all you’ve covered uh South Korea and North Korea before as well before you got to China so i’ just like to get your broader thoughts on this meeting in the first place seeing these two leaders side by side exchanging those gifts for Red Carpet welcome what’s your take on it well one of the things I’m pouring over is that agreement that David just mentioned it’s called a mutual defense pact and it would appear that if the other comes under aggression as President Putin put it in the press conference the other would come to uh each other would come to their aid now how strongly that will be taken is hard to know and it might actually be so ambiguous uh that it’s difficult for us to to figure out and I think the other thing is it might be deliberately ambiguous to keep the West guessing we may never really know but as David alluded to there what is happening between these two is an upgrade of the friendship to what Kim Jong-un called an alliance but what I would caution because there are many across the West many sitting in Soul in Ukraine in Washington and in London watching this wondering if this H isn’t new so-called Access of Evil what I would caution is that when it comes to ties between uh Russia and North Korea there are many limitations and one of those limitations is here in Beijing and they friend ship with Beijing H China already has a mutual defense treaty with North Korea so they’ll be looking at this document very carefully but it seems that China is standing back from this partnership they may not even fully agree with it when Mr Putin was here in May for a visit with President XI it is understood and was reported at the time that Beijing officials asked Mr Putin not to go straight to Pyongyang from here in Beijing they said they did not like the Optics China doesn’t want to be seen as part of a trilateral yes they say this is a this is an agreement between North Korea and Russia this is a meeting between President Putin and Kim Jong-un China wants to stand back from that and actually H today the Chinese officials are meeting with South Korean officials in Soul just to show that they have footprint right around the region and there’s a good reason from the from China’s point of view they’re trying to appeal as to the uh the world as a global leader and they want to have a partnership with the West they need its business for instance they do not want to be a global Pariah okay Laura and you’ve covered the careers as well um more specifically what else do you think’s in it for them when I look at this uh Mutual defense uh pact I would say that South Korea this is the red line that South Korea did not want so I think when we look to see the wording of it that’s what South Korea will be looking for you know the issue around the border right now is incredibly tense it’s the most tense it’s been I think the other thing is um when you look at how different things are when I was in Korea back between 2017 H and 2022 H this was a very different North Korean a very different Korean partnership we had the emerging of Kim Jong-un from Pyongyang he met with uh the South Korean president uh three times they met with Donald Trump three times he met with President XI three times back then Vladimir Putin he only met once then they were not firm friends and now they seem fast friends trying to upgrade their Alliance and that is because they need one another North Korea needs money it needs fuel around 50% of its fuel comes from Russia and when it comes to Russia they need ammunition from North Korea to help its campaign in Ukraine and that’s one of the reasons why the two are getting together now certainly in the past this is not a relation ship that either had prioritized North Korea had prioritized its relationship with China 85% of its trade if not more comes from China so when it comes to both of them yes they’re upgrading their partnership with each other but they won’t want to jeopardize their relationship with China great to have your Insight on this story Laura Bier our correspondent in Beijing well our correspondent in Ukraine Jean McKenzie reports from keev on these talks and she gave us her take on how Ukraine is likely to be viewing this visit look this this visit is very bad news for Ukraine of course because one of the major challenges that Ukraine has faced throughout this war is a shortage of ammunition compared to the Russians you know Ukraine has had a really tough time over the past 6 months because it didn’t get those vital supplies of ammunition from the United States because that us a package was held up in Congress and so when it looks to Russia and it sees that Vladimir Putin has this partner in North Korea which has the ability AB ility to supply it with vast amounts of ammunition then of course that is worrying Ukraine’s foreign minister was speaking yesterday to the BBC’s hard talk program and he said that what this visit showed was that neither Ukraine nor Russia was going to be able to continue fighting this war on its own and what it was going to come down to essentially was how much each side’s allies were able to provide it with and willing to provide it with so Ukraine is going to use this meeting to keep pressing its allies to send more weapons but also to reiterate this message it has that this is not just a war in Ukraine Russia is waging a war of aggression against the rest of the world you know this is not just something that even threatens Europe now it touches Asia too we have pretty solid evidence now that North Korea has been supplying Russia with ammunition and weapons since about August last year so the United States the UK South Korea they’ve all produced um intelligence to this effect that um thousands of shi containers have gone back between North Korea and Russia uh filled likely with these artillery shells we’ve also had similar work from open source investigators who’ve been tracking these containers going backwards and forwards also movement across the two Count’s rail border now a lot of this comes from North Korea’s stock piles because North Korea is still technically a war with South Korea so it has to hold on to a vast number of shells some of the estimates have been that now millions of shells have been sent so the big question actually is with this meeting how much longer can North Korea continue to supply Russia at the rate we think it has been since about August last year because if a lot of this stuff is coming from stock piles of course that has a limit so at some point North Korea is going to have to be producing this stuff and that might be at a slower rate now South Korea’s defense minister said earlier this year that they had noticed that North Korea’s weapons factories were operating at Full Tilt and one of the questions in all of this has always been well what is North Korea getting back from the Russians in in return for these weapons and some the United States has put forward one kind of theory is that Russia could decide to provide North Korea with some of the raw materials it needs to produce some of these weapons perhaps the logistical support that it needs to turn this stuff around and if Russia is actually able to amp up its production through North Korea then of course this is very bad news for Ukraine that’s Jean McKenzie there in Ukraine with her thoughts on this meeting between Kim and Putin

Russia and North Korea have signed a deal to help each other in the event of aggression against them, President Vladimir Putin has said.

Kim Jong Un has said he fully supports Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as Putin visited North Korea for the first time in 24 years.

The Russian leader received a red carpet welcome, including roses, waving crowds and ceremonial gunfire following his overnight arrival.

The US and South Korea have accused the North of supplying Russia with artillery ammunition in exchange for food and military aid, however both countries have denied this.

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