Russia and North Korea – Brothers: The Flip Side of the Coin

Russian media enthusiastically described Vladimir Putin’s visit to North Korea, which took place on June 18 and 19. As a result, the leaders of Russia and North Korea signed a Treaty of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

The details of this treaty are unknown; only general provisions have been reported.

Information has surfaced that engineering troops from North Korea might be sent to support the war in Ukraine. There are even mentions of three or four brigades. Additionally, rumors suggest that North Korea will supply the Russian army with weapons and ammunition.

It’s important to understand how this situation is viewed in South Korea, as it could have consequences for the Russian army fighting on the Ukrainian front.

According to Jeong Seong-jang, an analyst at the Sejong Institute (South Korea), the Russian Federation and North Korea have recreated a military alliance reminiscent of the Cold War era.

In South Korea, there are concerns that agreements were made between Putin and Kim Jong-un for Russia to provide certain military technologies to North Korea. Despite its large size, the North Korean army is currently technologically behind its main adversary, the South Korean army. Most of the equipment and ammunition of the North Korean army are merely modifications of Soviet weaponry, and the quality, considering North Korea’s technological level, is very low. Now, Russia might provide North Korea with its military technologies.

Russian patriots are already cheering: “Hooray, hooray. We will help our Korean comrades, and they will help us…”

However, all this aid to North Korea has a downside. So far, no military equipment or ammunition has been supplied to the Armed Forces of Ukraine from South Korea. As soon as South Korean intelligence or the intelligence of its allies learns that Putin has transferred technologies to Kim Jong-un, South Korean arsenals will open up to aid the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This represents a completely different level of armaments compared to North Korea, and the amount of modern equipment and ammunition in Seoul’s “military store” is immense, far more than Pyongyang possesses.

These are the prospects for the concept of “Russians and North Koreans – brothers forever.”