Russian lawmakers ratified a treaty of mutual defence with North Korea on Thursday, just a day after the US claimed Pyongyang had deployed 3,000 soldiers to aid Moscow’s war effort.
The State Duma, the lower house of parliament, voted 397-0 to endorse the “comprehensive strategic partnership” treaty which president Vladimir Putin signed with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during his visit to Pyongyang in June.
The treaty obliges Russia and North Korea to immediately provide military assistance using “all means” if either is attacked. This marks the strongest military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War.
“It’s important for us to develop comprehensive and allied relations” with North Korea, State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said in a statement.
The treaty will now be sent to the upper house of the parliament for ratification.
North Korea is already aiding Russia militarily, according to South Korea, Ukraine and the US.
Pyongyang has sent about 3,000 soldiers to Russia for training, the US defence secretary said.
“We are seeing evidence that there are North Korean troops,” Lloyd Austin said in Rome on Wednesday. "What exactly they are doing – left to be seen.”
It would be a “very, very serious issue” if Pyongyang indeed joined the war on Russia’s side, he said.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told the country’s lawmakers that the North had deployed troops, including special forces, to the Russian far east for training and acclimatisation at bases there, likely in preparation for sending them into combat.
The soldiers had been supplied with Russian military uniforms, weapons and false identification documents ahead of their likely deployment for combat, the spy agency said.
It was South Korea that first claimed earlier this month that the Russian Navy had transported some 1,500 North Korean special forces troops to aid Moscow’s war effort.
Then, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had intelligence that North Korea was preparing 10,000 soldiers to fight alongside the Russians in Ukraine.
White House national security spokesperson John F Kirby said North Korean troops were taken to Vladivostok in Russia by ship from the port city of Wonsan sometime earlier this month.
They had since been deployed to three training grounds, he added. “If they do deploy to fight against Ukraine, they are fair game,” he said. “They are fair targets and the Ukrainian military will defend themselves against North Korean soldiers the same way they are defending themselves against Russian soldiers,” he said.
