Russia, North Korea sign defense treaty
NATO chief warns on China’s nuclear weapons as West links war in Europe to Asian security challenges.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un signed a ‘comprehensive strategic partnership agreement’ in Pyongyang on June 19, according to Russian state media.
The treaty provides for ‘mutual assistance in the event of aggression against one of the parties’, Russian news outlet TASS reported, citing recent use by Ukraine of American-made weapons on targets inside Russia.
It is necessary to pay attention to the statements of the United States and other NATO countries on the supply of precision weapons systems for strikes on Russian territory, TASS attributed to Putin.
"This is not just talk, it is already happening, and all this is a gross violation of the restrictions accepted by Western countries within the framework of various international commitments,” Putin said.
It was the Russian president’s first visit to North Korea in 24 years. Kim had visited Russia last year as the two leaders opened a new dialogue. Following his visit to Pyongyang, Putin traveled to Vietnam.
“The fact that Putin has to come all the way to North Korea to pay his respects underscores how desperate he is for the ammunition he needs from North Korea,” Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia, told The Washington Post.
“That is a giant reversal from 10 to 20 years ago when Putin was the powerful one. Now he needs weapons, and he needs Kim Jong Un,” McFaul said.
North Korea is supplying millions of artillery shells and thousands of missiles to Russia for its war in Ukraine while Russia has been helping North Korea with its development of nuclear weapons. North Korea has conducted six nuclear weapons tests since 2006, drawing international sanctions.
While Russian diplomats have denied using North Korean weapons in Ukraine, Ukrainians say they are recovering Korean missile parts following Russian attacks.
Western intelligence reports and Russian military blogger posts have noted the poor quality of the North Korean shells that have killed Russian troops when they exploded inside the barrels of tanks and cannons.
European war, Asia link
Meanwhile, the weapons transfers by North Korea to Russia are seen in the West as part of a wider network of support by China, Iran and North Korea for Putin’s war. With NATO leaders preparing to hold a summit in Washington next month, Western allies are now drawing an explicit linkage between security challenges in East Asia and the war in Europe.
“Russia’s war in Ukraine is a brutal assault on a peaceful democratic nation. This war is propped up by China, North Korea, and Iran,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a press briefing in Washington with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on June 18.
“They want to see the United States fail. They want to see NATO fail. If they succeed in Ukraine, it will make us more vulnerable and the world more dangerous,” Stoltenberg said.
Secretary Blinken said again the US believes China is supplying machine tools and microchips to Russia’s ‘defense industrial base’ which has kept Moscow’s ‘war machine going’.
‘That has to stop,’ Blinken said.
A White House readout of Stoltenberg’s meeting with President Joe Biden on June 17 cited deepening engagement by NATO members in US alliances in East Asia. “The President welcomed steps NATO Allies are taking to support Ukraine and to deepen partnerships, including in the Indo-Pacific.”
China’s warheads
Stoltenberg, who will step down as NATO head in July, warned in a June 16 media interview that China is rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal.
“We see China is heavily investing in new modern nuclear capabilities, including, we expect them to have a thousand warheads by the end of this decade and even more in the 2030s,” Stoltenberg told The Telegraph’s Brussels correspondent.
“That means that not a very distant future, NATO may face something we never faced before. And that is two peer nuclear powered potential adversaries, China and Russia,” Stoltenberg said.
Stoltenberg, NATO secretary-general since 2014, is being replaced by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
Members of the NATO alliance are discussing plans to modernize and deploy nuclear weapons in Europe in response to Russia’s threats, he said.
“NATO's aim is a world without nuclear weapons, but as long as nuclear weapons exist, we will remain a nuclear alliance because a world where Russia, China, North Korea have nuclear weapons, NATO has not, that's a more dangerous world,” Stoltenberg said. “And we now see that Russia is increasing their nuclear capabilities.”
A Kremlin spokesman responded to Stoltenberg’s comments, calling it “an escalation.”
Russia’s tactical nukes
Putin and other Russian officials have repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Last week, Russia and ally Belarus carried out military exercises practicing deployment of tactical nuclear weapons.
"The situation on the European continent is quite tense, which is provoked every day by new decisions and actions of European capitals hostile to Russia, and above all by Washington," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters when asked about the drills.
Previously, Russia had held tactical nuclear deployment drills in May. Video released by the Russian defense ministry showed convoys of vehicles transporting nuclear-capable Iskander hypersonic missiles. The Russians displayed a Tupolev Tu-22 bomber and a MiG-31 fighter, both capable of carrying hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, according to Reuters.
In Washington, White House National Security Council Senior Director Pranay Vaddi warned that a new era of China and Russia’s deployments of nuclear weapons is forcing the US to adapt its nuclear doctrine.
“Absent a change in the trajectory of adversary arsenals, we may reach a point in the coming years where an increase from current deployed numbers is required,” Vaddi said at the annual meeting of the Arms Control Association this month.
‘Extremely Concerning’
An annual report released June 17 by the Stockholm International Peace Research institute warned that nuclear arsenals are being built up around the world including by the US and its allies.
“While the global total of nuclear warheads continues to fall as cold war-era weapons are gradually dismantled, regrettably we continue to see year-on-year increases in the number of operational nuclear warheads,’ said SIPRI Director Dan Smith.
‘This trend seems likely to continue and probably accelerate in the coming years and is extremely concerning,’ Smith said.
China has about 500 nuclear warheads and for the first time is deploying a small number on missiles during peacetime., according to the SIPRI report. China could have as many intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) as either Russia or the US by 2010, the report projected.
— William Roberts