Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson had a rather cagey response to questions about Russia’s deal with North Korea on Tuesday amid rising fears the two countries could team up against Ukraine.
Moscow and Pyongyang signed a treaty in June which reportedly included a mutual assistance clause, where both parties vowed to help the other protect itself against aggression.
This sparked speculation North Korea could be directly drawn into Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, or that Russia could end up helping Kim Jong Un in a brewing row with South Korea.
The Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov did nothing to dampen those fears this week when he refused to lay out the terms of their deal.
According to Reuters, he would only say the treaty’s wording was “quite unambiguous”, and needed no extra explanation.
He said their deal “implies truly strategic deep cooperation in all areas, including security”.
Six North Korean troops have already been killed on the frontline in Ukraine, according to reports from Kyiv, although Peskov has denounced those claims as “fake news”.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy also alleged this week that North Korea had been sending personnel to join Russia’s ranks.
The US claims the country has given Moscow ballistic missiles and ammunition, although both Russian and North Korea have refuted this.
According to the Russian state news agency TASS, Putin’s deputy foreign minister Andrei Rudenko had a similar answer to Peskov about the pact between the countries.
He said: “If an act of aggression is committed against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, all necessary measures will be taken in accordance with our legislation, in accordance with the DPRK’s legislation.
“The treaty says it all: article three, article four. The treaty is signed, so it is public.
“It has Article 4, which deals precisely with the issue of mutual assistance in case of aggression, that the sides, in case of aggression against one of the sides, will provide each other with any necessary assistance, including military assistance.”
It is not just the war in Europe which could be impacted by the mutual defence pact, either.
Tensions are also bubbling on the Korean peninsula after Pyongyang blew up sections of the roads between the two countries, sparking warning shots from South Korea.
The US army’s Indo-Pacific commander, General Charles Flynn, said fighting in the Ukraine war would given North Korean soldiers the chance to get feedback on their own weapons.
He said: “That kind of feedback from a real battlefield to North Korea to be able to make adjustments to their weapons, their ammunition, their capabilities, and even their people – to me, is very concerning.”