Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed on June 19 the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement in Pyongyang, the Kremlin's press service reported.
Under the treaty, the two countries pledge to provide aid to one another if either is attacked, Putin said at a press conference after the signing ceremony.
The Kremlin's chief arrived in North Korea on June 18 in a sign of the deepening relations between the two countries, as Pyongyang supplied Moscow with extensive military supplies for use on Ukrainian battlefields.
The two leaders led hours-long talks before signing the treaty. The North Korean dictator claimed the agreement is of a "peaceful and defensive nature" and called Russia his country's "most honorable friend and ally."
Details of the treaty remain unclear, but Putin said that Russia "does not rule out the development of military-technical cooperation with North Korea" in connection to the newly signed agreement.
"I have no doubt that (the treaty) will become a driving force of a new multipolar world. Time has changed. The status of (North Korea) and the Russian Federation in the global geopolitical structure has also changed," Kim said at a press conference.
North Korea's leader also said the agreement provides for cooperation in the economic, political, and military spheres.
With Russia's military stocks running low and domestic production capacity simultaneously hampered by Western sanctions, North Korea has been shaping up to be Russia's leading weapons supplier.
Moscow has reportedly received extensive military packages from Pyongyang, including ballistic missiles and around 5 million artillery shells.
As part of his visit to North Korea, Putin and Kim also signed treaties on on cooperation in healthcare, science, and the construction of a border bridge across the Tumannaya River.
According to the Russian state-controlled news agency Interfax, the new partnership agreement replaces previous documents signed between the two countries in 1961, 2000, and 2001.
Katie Marie Davies
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