North Korea has ratified a "comprehensive strategic partnership" agreement with Russia, cementing a deal that has paved the way for its soldiers to fight on Russian soil against Ukraine.
North Korea's state-controlled news agency KCNA said on November 12 that the deal, which was agreed between Moscow and Pyongyang in June, will take full effect once both sides exchange ratified copies of the agreement.
According to reports from South Korea's Yonhap news agency, Russian President Vladimir Putin has already signed the documents.
The deployment of North Korean troops in Russia's Kursk region, which has been confirmed by U.S., NATO, South Korean, and Ukrainian intelligence, has raised concerns that it will further destabilize the Asia-Pacific region and broaden Moscow's war on Ukraine.
South Korea has raised questions about what new military technologies North Korea might get from Russia in exchange for supplying troops.
"Russia working together with North Korea, Iran, and China is not only threatening Europe, it's threatening peace and security, yes, here in Europe, but also in the Indo-Pacific and in North America," NATO Chief Mark Rutte said in Paris on November 12 ahead of talks later in the day with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Russia has had to shift some resources to the Kursk border region to respond to a Ukrainian incursion launched in August, and its forces have struggled to push back Ukrainian troops there.
The United States has estimated about 10,000 North Korean troops are in Russia now. Seoul and its allies assess that the number has increased to 11,000, while Ukraine has put the figure higher, at up to 12,000.
Moscow and Pyongyang have trumpeted their increased defense cooperation since the launch of the invasion, but the Kremlin has neither denied nor directly confirmed the presence of North Korean troops on its soil.
The bolstering of Russian forces comes at a time when it appears to be making advances in Ukraine despite incurring heavy casualties.
NATO's Rutte, in the face of the battlefield gains by Russia and the election in the United States of Donald Trump, who has been critical of how much aid the West has given to Kyiv, called for continued support of Ukraine from allies.
"We must recommit to stay the course of the war and we must do more than just keep Ukraine in the fight," Rutte said.
"We need to raise the cost for Putin and his enabling authoritarian threats by providing Ukraine with the support it needs to change the trajectory of the conflict."
Macron agreed, saying the "only way toward negotiations" was to make sure that nothing is decided about "Ukraine without the Ukrainians and on Europe without the Europeans."