North Korea ratified the treaty in a decree signed Monday by the country’s chairman of State Affairs, KCNA said, using one of Kim’s titles.

North Korea’s official parliament, the Supreme People’s Assembly, has the right to ratify treaties, but Kim can unilaterally ratify major ones, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry.

The treaty requires both countries to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance if either of them is attacked. It also calls on the two countries to actively cooperate in efforts to establish a “just and multipolar new world order” and strengthen cooperation in various sectors, including peaceful atomic energy, space, food supply, trade and the economy. .

Some observers speculate that ratification of the treaty in both countries could indicate that North Korea could soon formally enter the war between Russia and Ukraine.

According to intelligence assessments from the United States, South Korea and Ukraine, up to 12,000 North Korean troops have likely been sent to Russia as part of the June treaty. Last week, Ukrainian officials said Ukraine and North Korean troops engaged in small-scale fighting as the Ukrainian military fired artillery at North Korean soldiers in the Russian border region of Kursk.

North Korea’s sending of troops threatens to escalate the nearly three-year war. South Korea, the United States and their partners also worry about what Russia could give North Korea in return. The possible Russian transfer of sensitive technology to enhance North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, which are already advancing, would be an alarming development for the United States and its allies.

North Korea and Russia have been significantly strengthening their military and other cooperation. South Korea’s spy agency said last month that North Korea had sent more than 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles and other conventional weapons to Russia since August 2023 to replenish its dwindling weapons arsenals.