South to consider arms to Ukraine after North-Russia mutual defense pact

North Korea

Published: 20 Jun. 2024, 16:53 Updated: 21 Jun. 2024, 11:47

South to consider arms to Ukraine after North-Russia mutual defense pact

Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un pose for a photo during a signing ceremony following bilateral talks in Pyongyang on Wednesday. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

South Korea will reconsider supplying arms to Ukraine, the presidential office said Thursday, after North Korea and Russia agreed to increase military cooperation through a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty signed Wednesday.

The South Korean government “condemned” and expressed "grave concern" over the treaty signed between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin. It also criticized the premise of the promised military cooperation — a preemptive strike by the international community — as "absurd."

National Security Adviser Chang Ho-jin announced Seoul's official statement in a press briefing after a National Security Council standing committee.

"We have designated North Korean and Russian parties involved in arms transport and oil transhipments between Pyongyang and Moscow, as well as four vessels, five organizations, and eight individuals from third-party countries, as targets of independent sanctions," said Chang.

Regarding export controls on Russia that have been in effect since the war in Ukraine, Chang said that an additional 243 items have been added, bringing the total to 1,402 items.

In particular, Chang emphasized that the South Korean government will reconsider supplying arms to Ukraine, potentially overturning Seoul's position that it does not provide weapons to the country.

"We emphasize that any cooperation that directly or indirectly helps North Korea increase its military power is a violation of UN Security Council resolutions and is subject to monitoring and sanctions by the international community," the statement from the presidential office added. "In particular, Russia, which led the resolution on sanctions against North Korea as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, is harming our security by violating the resolution and supporting North Korea, which will inevitably have a negative impact on South Korea-Russia relations."

The statement added that the South Korean government will respond "resolutely with the international community against any actions that threaten our security, and will further strengthen the extended deterrence of the South Korea-U.S. alliance and the South Korea-U.S.-Japan security cooperation system to neutralize North Korea's nuclear weapons and missiles."

South Korea's fury comes a day after North Korea and Russia agreed to extend military assistance to each other “without delay” if either country is attacked in their new comprehensive strategic partnership treaty signed Wednesday, the most muscular accord of its kind since the Cold War.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Thursday disclosed the full text of the treaty that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed after their bilateral summit in Pyongyang.

“If one of the two sides is placed under war situations due to an armed invasion from an individual country or several nations, the other side provides military and other assistance without delay by mobilizing all means in its possession in line with Article 51 of the UN Charter and the laws of the DPRK and the Russian Federation,” the treaty text released by the KCNA read, referring to North Korea by the abbreviation of its full name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Article 51 of the UN Charter stipulates that all UN member countries have the inherent right of individual and collective self-defense if an armed attack is staged against them.

Since the clause on providing military and other assistance in the treaty signed by Kim and Putin can be interpreted as “automatic military intervention,” North Korea and Russia appear to have restored their alliance 28 years after their original defense agreement was abrogated.

“It can be evaluated as a declaration to the world that the relationship between North Korea and Russia has been elevated to a level approaching a military alliance,” said Hyun Seung-soo, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

Following the summit between Kim and Putin, the North Korean leader declared Pyongyang-Moscow relations as having been upgraded to “the level of an alliance.” However, Putin did not use the same expression to define the relationship as an alliance.

Thus, some analysts in Seoul say that North Korea and Russia have concluded a vague agreement that leaves room for interpretation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un speak to the media following their bilateral talks at Kumsusan state residence in Pyongyang on Wednesday. [AFP/YONHAP]

“From Putin’s perspective, he has stipulated the relationship between the two countries to create a mechanism to ensure that North Korea continues to support Russia, which is in a state of war against Ukraine,” said Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification. “The new treaty does outline a more advanced military alliance than in the past between North Korea and Russia, but there appears to be a difference in perception as to whether it is a complete revival of the automatic intervention clause that Kim hoped for.”

The new treaty's provision is, in fact, similar to Article 1 of the treaty signed between North Korea and the Soviet Union in 1961, which stated that immediate military intervention would be provided in case of emergency. The treaty was scrapped in 1996, after the Soviet Union established diplomatic relations with South Korea in 1990 and collapsed the following year.

North Korea and Russia signed a friendship treaty in 2000, but the automatic military intervention clause was omitted and replaced with one that stipulated only “immediate contact in case of emergency.”

A difference between the 1961 treaty and the new treaty signed Wednesday is that the latter mentions Article 51 of the UN Charter and the domestic laws of North Korea and Russia.

The new treaty between Pyongyang and Moscow also states that the two countries seek to “cooperate to ensure solid regional and international peace and security” and that they pledge to “coordinate their positions at the request of either party and immediately activate bilateral negotiation channels to agree on possible practical measures to cooperate in eliminating the posed threat.”

North Korea and Russia further promised that they would not enter into “agreements with third countries that infringe upon the sovereignty, security, territorial integrity, political, social, economic, and cultural systems of the other party, and not to participate in such actions” in the newly signed treaty.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attend a gala concert in Pyongyang on Wednesday. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Kim and Putin also appear to have effectively agreed to expand and specify areas in which sanctions can be avoided in the future, focusing on dispatching North Korean workers and economic and logistics cooperation.

Putin has said during the summit that the sanctions against North Korea, led by the United States and its allies on the UN Security Council, must be lifted, according to Russian media Sputnik news agency. This is tantamount to Russia declaring that it will ignore sanctions to which it had already agreed as a permanent member of the Security Council.

Regarding the upgraded relations between North Korea and Russia, the United States expressed regret Wednesday and said that Pyongyang-Moscow cooperation is of “great concern.”

“Deepening cooperation between Russia and the DPRK is a trend that should be of great concern to anyone interested in maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, upholding the global nonproliferation regime, abiding by UN Security Council resolutions, and supporting the people of Ukraine as they defend their freedom and independence against Russia's brutal invasion," a U.S. State Department official told Yonhap News Agency. “As we have said before, we don't believe any country should give Mr. Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression against Ukraine.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un stand together during the departure ceremony at Sunan Airport outside Pyongyang on Wednesday. [AP/YONHAP]

The spokesperson also added that Russia is “blatantly violating the UN Charter and working to undermine the international system” and that “we cannot turn a blind eye to the clear violations of international law Russia has committed in Ukraine.”

Experts defined the signing of the comprehensive strategic partnership treaty between North Korea and Russia as a “serious challenge to the Western liberal order” and expressed concern that the deepening military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow could lead to a security crisis in the region.

"Russia deepening its partnership with North Korea is very dangerous, and Moscow is likely going to provide more advanced military aid to the DPRK," said Elbridge Colby, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development under the Trump administration. "And now they have committed to aid each other in conflict and this only heightens the probability of simultaneous conflicts in Asia, Europe as well as the Middle East."

Colby stressed that the South Korea-U.S. alliance is now more important than ever, and U.S. forces in Korea must still focus on China.

North Korea’s and Russia’s decision to provide military assistance “without delay” in case of invasion of either country is “a renewal of Cold-War era security guarantees,” said Victor Cha, senior vice president for Asia and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

"I think this sets the pretext for a formalization of the US-Japan-Korea trilateral security relationship in the context of the NATO summit next month," added Cha. "I would like to see a collective security declaration between the three – threats to one are a threat to all."

Kim Jong-un has wanted to establish a closer strategic relationship with Russia in the past few years, according to Anthony Kim, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

"Kim is definitely positioning himself for an elevated geopolitical chess board to take full advantage of the uncertainty surrounding Ukraine and the November 5 election in the U.S. among other things," said Kim. "Washington and Seoul should stay firm through the close communication and coordination that has been already in place. During the upcoming NATO summit, the two allies should demonstrate and underscore again that the South Korea-U.S. alliance is not purely bilateral; it's global by nature."

Kim also predicted that Russia would further enhance Kim's international status, something that the North Korean leader has long pursued, and strengthen his position until Trump returns to the White House and begins negotiations with Pyongyang.

BY LIM JEONG-WON,KIM HYOUNG-GU,CHUNG YEONG-GYO,LEE GEUN-PYUNG [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]