This study provides quantitative content analysis of the Treaty on Comprehensive
Strategic Partnership between Russia and North Korea, signed in 2024, and its
military implications. The study argues that, although the treaty was formally
proclaimed as a comprehensive strategic partnership, its content has clearly
gravitated toward a military and security cooperation agenda. In turn, this
cooperation has been underpinned by extensive military rapprochement that was
ignited by the war in Ukraine, fundamentally constitutes the partnership’s essence
and independent basis, operating as a direct manifestation of power maximization
and security competition. While the public discourse has largely fixated on the
treaty’s mutual defense clause, a holistic textual analysis reveals that the entire
document is designed to codify and institutionalize a comprehensive military
framework. To properly understand the motivations behind the treaty, one should
look beyond the declared rhetoric of “strategic partnership” that is just a diplomatic
facade. The rapprochement between Russia and North Korea is best understood
through the lens of offensive realism as a product of a cold and pragmatic strategic
calculus.
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