The photo, published on June 20, 2024, by the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (right) shaking hands with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, during his summit meeting held the previous day at the Kumsusan House for State Visits in Pyongyang. (Exclusive use within South Korea. Partial or total distribution prohibited)
SEOUL, June 24 (Yonhap) — North Korea is expected to hold a plenary meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party (WPK) this week to review its policy performance in the first semester, amid attention on whether follow-up measures will be discussed for the implementation of a new association treaty signed with Russia.
In May, the WPK Politburo had decided to hold a plenary meeting of the party’s Central Committee at the end of June to review the progress of its economic and other projects during the first half of the year, without revealing other details, such as the date of the meeting.
North Korea usually holds a plenary party meeting for a few days in June. But the upcoming meeting attracts more attention, due to the possibility that detailed measures to expand cooperation with Russia could be discussed, following the signing of the comprehensive strategic partnership treaty with Moscow.
The chairman of the North Korean State Affairs Committee, Kim Jong-un, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, held a summit in Pyongyang on Wednesday of last week, and signed a wide-ranging treaty, in which they agreed to provide military assistance, without delay, if any of them are attacked.
It is considered that Article 4 of the treaty, with 23 clauses, could be seen as a justification for automatic military intervention in the event of an attack against either country, which would be equivalent to the restoration of a war-era alliance. Cold War, for the first time in 28 years, since a mutual defense treaty was suspended in 1996.
The treaty also indicates that North Korea and Russia could join together to resist international sanctions against Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs. Article 16 of the treaty calls for both sides to oppose “unilateral coercive measures of an extraterritorial nature.”
The new pact determines science and technology, space, the peaceful use of nuclear energy and artificial intelligence (AI), among others, as areas of cooperation. This raises concerns that cooperation between North Korea and Russia in such fields could help the North develop weapons of mass destruction (WMD), banned under UN sanctions.
Also drawing attention is whether Pyongyang will ratify the treaty at the WPK meeting. Under the North’s Constitution, a “major treaty” can be ratified or discarded only by the North Korean leader, although the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA), the North’s Parliament, approves ordinary treaties.
After this week’s plenary party meeting, North Korea is expected to hold a key session of the SPA in an attempt to amend the Constitution. The North Korean leader had previously asked to amend the Constitution to define South Korea as the “main enemy” of the North and clarify its territorial limits, including the maritime border.
Experts have said about this week’s WPK meeting that Kim could issue a message criticizing South Korea and the United States over the allies’ joint military exercises scheduled for August.
Seoul and Washington plan to organize, in August, the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise (UFS), which Pyongyang has long denounced as a rehearsal for its invasion.
Separately, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, arrived in the port city of Busan in southeastern South Korea on Saturday in a show of force against military threats from North Korea. South Korea, the US and Japan will celebrate, this month, its first trilateral multidomain exercise.
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