Russian parliament ratifies defence treaty with North Korea

The lower house of Russia's parliament ratified a strategic cooperation treaty with North Korea on Thursday, as the US claimed North Korea deployed 3,000 troops to Russia.

The State Duma voted 397-0 to endorse the “comprehensive strategic partnership," that includes a mutual defence pact.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the agreement with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a visit to the East Asian country in June, but many details remain unclear.

The treaty will now be sent to the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, for endorsement. The treaty is the strongest alliance between the two countries since the Cold War. It allows for either state to provide military assistance if either is attacked.

“It’s important for us to develop comprehensive and allied relations” with North Korea, State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said in a statement.

South Korea voiced concern over the deal, calling on Moscow to stop its “illegal cooperation” with Pyongyang. 

Last week, Seoul's National Intelligence Service (NIS) released an intelligence report detailing Pyongyang's troop deployment to Russia ahead of their movement into Ukraine. 

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol called the deployment a “provocation that threatens global security beyond the Korean Peninsula and Europe”, after talks with Polish President Andrzej Duda.

Seoul is considering sending direct military aid to Ukraine, as part of measures to counter military ties between North Korea and Russia, officials said on Tuesday.

On Thursday, Ukrainian President Zelenskiy said the first batch of North Korean troops have arrived in Kursk, a Russian border region where Ukraine has been operating since its incursion into Russia in August. 

The Kremlin has previously dismissed reports about the North's troop deployment as "fake news". But Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that it was Moscow's business how to implement a partnership treaty with Pyongyang.

Putin did not deny that North Korean troops were currently in Russia. 

US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin said Pyongyang has sent about 3,000 soldiers to Russia for training. 

It would be a “very, very serious issue” if Pyongyang indeed joined the war on Russia’s side, he said.

The reported deployment of North Korean troops comes as tensions with South Korea heightened over the last few weeks. North Korea amended its constitution to define the South as a “hostile” state and last week blew up roads and railways that once connected the two countries.