Pyongyang ratifies strategic partnership with Russia that reportedly contains secret clause authorizing North Korea’s Ukraine intervention

On Tuesday, North Korea ratified its comprehensive strategic partnership treaty with Russia. The agreement will enter force when the two allies formally exchange ratification documents.

Russian and North Korean leaders signed the treaty in mid-June, and Russian lawmakers ratified the strategic partnership last month, at which time The Wall Street Journal reported that the treaty has a “secret clause giving North Korea permission to send a first wave of about 1,000 North Korean soldiers to Ukraine.”

In October, South Korean, Ukrainian, and Western intelligence agencies reported that thousands of North Korean soldiers were being deployed to Russia’s Kursk region to help expel Ukraine’s incursion forces.

NBC News reported on Monday that South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol “got out his golf clubs for the first time in eight years” and intends to “woo Trump with golf” as part of Seoul’s diplomatic effort to position itself amid growing concerns about North Korea’s troop deployment in Russia.