Accessibility links

Breaking News

Putin signs into law mutual defense treaty with North Korea


Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech at the 21st annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi, Krasnodar region, Russia, Nov. 07, 2024.
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech at the 21st annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi, Krasnodar region, Russia, Nov. 07, 2024.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a treaty on the country's strategic partnership with North Korea which includes a mutual defense provision, according to a decree published Saturday.

FILE - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the National Defense University in Pyongyang, North Korea, October 7, 2024.
FILE - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the National Defense University in Pyongyang, North Korea, October 7, 2024.

The accord, signed by Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June after a summit in Pyongyang, calls on each side to come to the other's aid in case of an armed attack.

Russia's upper house ratified the treaty this week, while the lower house endorsed it last month. Putin signed a decree on that ratification that appeared Saturday on a government website outlining legislative procedures.

The treaty galvanizes closer ties between Moscow and Pyongyang since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Reports from South Korea and Western countries say North Korea has supplied Russia with weaponry. Ukrainian forensic experts say they have found traces of the weapons at sites of Russian attacks.

FILE - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy talks with Ukrainian journalists in Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 21, 2024.
FILE - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy talks with Ukrainian journalists in Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 21, 2024.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that North Korea has sent 11,000 troops to Russia and some of them suffered casualties in combat with Kyiv's forces in Russia's southern Kursk region.

Russia has not confirmed the presence of the North Korean troops.

  • 16x9 Image

    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

XS
SM
MD
LG