Berliner Boersenzeitung - Russian senators ratify North Korean defence pact

EUR -
AED 3.95348
AFN 72.115817
ALL 96.648871
AMD 416.806217
ANG 1.940336
AOA 982.165149
ARS 1068.497791
AUD 1.635779
AWG 1.929359
AZN 1.83008
BAM 1.931859
BBD 2.173741
BDT 128.655592
BGN 1.961456
BHD 0.405556
BIF 3118.726892
BMD 1.076351
BND 1.417125
BOB 7.439731
BRL 6.442823
BSD 1.076647
BTN 90.554926
BWP 14.316446
BYN 3.523304
BYR 21096.478718
BZD 2.170086
CAD 1.495956
CDF 3061.141765
CHF 0.940752
CLF 0.037314
CLP 1029.616057
CNY 7.705575
CNH 7.66286
COP 4753.703993
CRC 550.472962
CUC 1.076351
CUP 28.5233
CVE 109.038513
CZK 25.352327
DJF 191.288924
DKK 7.456311
DOP 65.09232
DZD 144.001782
EGP 52.970244
ERN 16.145264
ETB 130.184685
FJD 2.424267
FKP 0.82359
GBP 0.833478
GEL 2.922322
GGP 0.82359
GHS 17.647058
GIP 0.82359
GMD 76.960899
GNF 9288.908263
GTQ 8.309028
GYD 225.236586
HKD 8.368037
HNL 26.994856
HRK 7.415014
HTG 141.672954
HUF 409.980468
IDR 17038.205077
ILS 4.024562
IMP 0.82359
INR 90.669633
IQD 1410.019751
IRR 45306.300126
ISK 148.902766
JEP 0.82359
JMD 170.220485
JOD 0.763239
JPY 165.692366
KES 138.849498
KGS 92.751741
KHR 4386.129953
KMF 484.950243
KPW 968.715617
KRW 1501.977826
KWD 0.330268
KYD 0.897173
KZT 527.86337
LAK 23614.063845
LBP 96367.496031
LKR 315.497163
LRD 205.556156
LSL 18.707118
LTL 3.178184
LVL 0.651074
LYD 5.204133
MAD 10.542828
MDL 19.228525
MGA 4967.359817
MKD 61.563292
MMK 3495.945916
MNT 3657.440575
MOP 8.617524
MRU 42.960786
MUR 50.071764
MVR 16.586214
MWK 1868.00684
MXN 22.097264
MYR 4.738637
MZN 68.751895
NAD 18.696374
NGN 1799.648278
NIO 39.593594
NOK 11.936565
NPR 144.888079
NZD 1.804788
OMR 0.414428
PAB 1.076549
PEN 4.061613
PGK 4.316705
PHP 63.159733
PKR 299.113682
PLN 4.367714
PYG 8418.668786
QAR 3.918453
RON 4.975215
RSD 117.02626
RUB 105.477964
RWF 1469.219054
SAR 4.043213
SBD 8.932988
SCR 14.660174
SDG 647.42503
SEK 11.662386
SGD 1.430847
SHP 0.82359
SLE 24.486711
SLL 22570.537908
SOS 614.596499
SRD 37.569996
STD 22278.291624
SVC 9.420256
SYP 2704.364354
SZL 18.696055
THB 36.727789
TJS 11.4658
TMT 3.767228
TND 3.343682
TOP 2.520922
TRY 36.847578
TTD 7.302434
TWD 34.627822
TZS 2933.056064
UAH 44.652331
UGX 3952.974692
USD 1.076351
UYU 44.794864
UZS 13771.910276
VEF 3899137.879949
VES 46.717577
VND 27328.550747
VUV 127.78658
WST 3.015057
XAF 647.921394
XAG 0.031909
XAU 0.000396
XCD 2.908893
XDR 0.806596
XOF 648.502943
XPF 119.331742
YER 268.899363
ZAR 18.946091
ZMK 9688.510661
ZMW 29.040832
ZWL 346.584568
  • RYCEF

    -0.0200

    7.28

    -0.27%

  • RBGPF

    64.1700

    64.17

    +100%

  • SCS

    0.0700

    12.32

    +0.57%

  • NGG

    1.0200

    65.47

    +1.56%

  • CMSD

    0.1200

    25.04

    +0.48%

  • RIO

    0.4900

    65.5

    +0.75%

  • BCC

    4.2300

    138.49

    +3.05%

  • AZN

    -5.1600

    66.27

    -7.79%

  • CMSC

    0.0400

    24.68

    +0.16%

  • GSK

    0.0500

    37.02

    +0.14%

  • VOD

    0.0900

    9.41

    +0.96%

  • RELX

    0.8500

    47.91

    +1.77%

  • JRI

    0.1700

    13.27

    +1.28%

  • BCE

    -0.2800

    28.84

    -0.97%

  • BP

    0.2300

    29.96

    +0.77%

  • BTI

    0.3500

    35.46

    +0.99%

Russian senators ratify North Korean defence pact
Russian senators ratify North Korean defence pact / Photo: YURI KOCHETKOV - POOL/AFP

Russian senators ratify North Korean defence pact

Russian lawmakers on Wednesday voted unanimously to ratify a landmark mutual defence pact with North Korea, as Kyiv and the West say Pyongyang sent thousands of troops to fight for Russia against Ukraine.

Text size:

The agreement formalises months of deepening security cooperation between the two nations, which were Communist allies throughout the Cold War.

North Korea has become one of the most vocal and important backers of Russia's full-scale offensive on Ukraine.

The West has long accused Pyongyang of supplying artillery shells and missiles to Moscow to fire on Ukraine.

The latest accusations, based on intelligence reports, that North Korea has deployed around 10,000 troops to Russia suggest even deeper involvement in the conflict and have triggered an outcry and warnings in Seoul, Kyiv and Western capitals.

Ahead of the vote, presidential official Andrei Rudenko addressed the house, saying Moscow's relations with Pyongyang have reached new heights.

Rudenko praised North Korea for being the "only country in the world to publicly support" Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and 2022 annexation of eastern Ukraine following Moscow's full-scale offensive.

"I believe this treaty is very timely," he told the house.

The vote came as Donald Trump claimed a victory in the US presidential election.

- 'Mutual assistance' -

Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed the strategic partnership treaty in June, during the Kremlin chief's visit to Pyongyang.

They said it would obligate "mutual assistance in case of aggression", with Putin calling it at the time a "breakthrough document".

It also commits them to cooperate internationally to oppose Western sanctions and coordinate positions at the United Nations.

Putin visited Pyongyang this summer in his first trip to North Korea in 24 years.

Kim has called Putin his "closest comrade" while Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said last week that North Korea would "stand firmly by our Russian comrades until victory day".

She called Moscow's offensive against Ukraine a "sacred struggle" and said Pyongyang believed in Putin's "wise leadership".

- 'Frontline' -

The treaty will now go back to Putin's desk for a final signature.

The ratification comes as North Korea faces growing international pressure not to send its troops into combat alongside Russia.

South Korea warned Tuesday that a substantial deployment was already near the combat zone, including in Russia's western Kursk region, where Kyiv has been mounting a cross-border offensive since the summer.

"More than 10,000 North Korean soldiers are currently in Russia, and we assess that a significant portion of them are deployed to frontline areas, including Kursk," Jeon Ha-gyu, a spokesman for the South Korean Defence Ministry, said Tuesday.

Asked directly about the reports last month, Putin did not deny that North Korean troops had been sent to Russia.

And several other Russian officials have deflected requests to comment on Western intelligence.

"The Kyiv regime is trying to do everything to involve Seoul" in the conflict, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday, refusing to comment on the substance of the allegations.

- Missile tests -

In exchange for sending troops, the West fears Russia is offering North Korea technological support that could advance Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme.

The reclusive state fired a salvo of short-range ballistic missiles early Tuesday, Seoul's military said, its second launch in days.

But sending North Korean troops to fight against Ukraine would be a major escalation in the conflict, more than two and a half years after Moscow launched its full-scale offensive.

Russia has seized the momentum on the battlefield this year as it grinds through the eastern Donbas region, capturing a string of towns and villages as Ukraine struggles with manpower and ammunition shortages.

(H.Schneide--BBZ)