On his recent visit to Pyongyang, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement, before moving on to a warm welcome and a similar series of declarations in Vietnam.
Is this really a new level of relations between Moscow and Pyongyang?
Those who consider the visit simply a gesture of support for Pyongyang are missing important details. We now see the term “universal strategic partnership” being used, which implies the highest possible level of cooperation between countries. Compared to earlier descriptions of relations between Moscow and Pyongyang, this is a great leap forward.
There is also the article written by Putin for North Korea’s main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun. It contains an important thesis: the strengthening of relations between Pyongyang and Moscow is the beginning of a new world order based on justice, which will oppose the US model of a rules-based world order.
This is very important because currently, we see a self-fulfilling prophecy. The “Western triangle” composed of Washington-Tokyo-Seoul is evolving into the Asian equivalent of NATO and justifies its actions by invoking the hypothetical threat coming from Pyongyang and Moscow. This in turn leads to increasing cooperation between the “Eastern triangle” composed of Moscow-Beijing-Pyongyang, and the close ties that the West warns of can indeed become a reality.
Article 4 of the Russia-DPRK strategic partnership treaty states that“if one of the Parties is subjected to an armed attack by any State or several States and thus finds itself in a state of war, the other Party will immediately provide military and other assistance with all the means at its disposal.” However, based on comments made by Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, we know that the agreement is not directed against third countries, so South Korea shouldn’t be worried.
The key point here is the official “state of war” (for example, formally, Russia is conducting a ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine and the countries have not declared war on each other). Other situations are covered by Article 3, which states that“In the event of an immediate threat of an act of armed aggression against one of the Parties, the Parties, at the request of one of the Parties, shall immediately use bilateral channels for consultations in order to coordinate their positions and agree on possible practical measures to assist each other to help eliminate the emerging threat.” During the consultations, a specific strategy and measures will be developed.
The “Eastern triangle” composed of Moscow-Beijing-Pyongyang, reminds me of The Tripartite Pact signed by Berlin, Rome and Tokyo formulating the Axis powers and directed primarily against the United States. Pact resulted in Italy attacking British forces in North Africa, Germany invading Russia and the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor.
ReplyDeletePutin is making the rounds setting in place multiple war fronts if and when things get serious. The idea is to spread thin the forces to a point of ineffectiveness. Things go hot in Ukraine another front opens in Korea, another front opens in Taiwan, another front opens in and so on.
ReplyDeleteDifference between ww2 and now is the United States unfortunately does not enjoy the separation of distance any longer. Any attack on Russia proper that may threaten its sovereignty will likely cause an unthinkable response. Up until now the game plan has been proxies with pot shots, but it appears to be about to change. Hence the draft redefinition raising the age and inclusion of females. Expecting a higher casualty rate and multiple fronts. Globalist will not be satisfied until they achieve total domination even if that means burning it all down in the process.
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