North Korea-Russia treaty comes into force, KCNA says

The “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty” agreed by the leaders of North Korea and Russia in June came into force on Wednesday with the exchange of “ratification instruments” in Moscow, the North’s KCNA news agency reported on Thursday.

The treaty was signed during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Pyongyang in June and a summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, and includes a mutual defence pact for immediate military assistance if either faces armed aggression.

It “will serve as a strong driving force accelerating the establishment of independent and just multi-polarized world order without domination, subjugation and hegemony,” KCNA said.

Read more: North Korea ratifies mutual defence treaty with Russia

Seoul, Washington and Kyiv have said there are more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers in Russia, and U.S. officials and Ukraine’s defence minister said some of them have engaged in combat in Kursk, near the Ukraine border.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last week that North Korean troops had suffered casualties in combat with his country’s forces, and the first battles between them “open a new page in instability in the world.”