Putin Signs Landmark Security Deal With North Korea

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at a military assistance deal between Russia and North Korea, a vaccine production initiative in Africa, and Kenya’s contentious tax plan.

Putin and Kim Cement ‘Fiery Friendship’

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed to sign a landmark military assistance pact that Pyongyang released on Thursday. The treaty promises immediate military aid if either country faces armed aggression. Putin revived the deal, a version of which was first signed in 1961 but discarded after the Soviet Union’s collapse, on Wednesday during his first trip to North Korea since 2000.

Putin called the agreement a “breakthrough document.” The deal includes cooperation on food and energy security, nuclear energy, and space exploration, and it affirms that neither country will sign any treaty with a third party that infringes on the interests of the other. The agreement stipulates that all actions must follow both nations’ laws as well as Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which recognizes member states’ right to self-defense.

In response, South Korea convened an emergency meeting of its national security council on Thursday. “It’s absurd that two parties with a history of launching wars of invasion—the Korean War and the war in Ukraine—are now vowing mutual military cooperation on the premise of a preemptive attack by the international community that will never happen,” the office of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said.

South Korea also announced that it would now consider sending weapons to Ukraine, signaling a major policy shift. Seoul has previously provided only humanitarian relief and other support to Kyiv and backed U.S.-led sanctions against Moscow. On Thursday, it added 243 items to a list of goods banned from export to Russia, bringing the total to 1,402 products. South Korea also said it would further strengthen security cooperation with the United States and Japan.

South Korea has accused North Korea and Russia of violating international law by trading arms for Russia’s use in Ukraine. Ukrainian officials have reportedly found North Korean missile debris on their soil, although Pyongyang and Moscow deny such activity. Still, on Thursday, Kim reiterated his “unconditional” support for “all of Russia’s policies,” including its war effort.

Kim even gave Putin a pair of Pungsan dogs, a local breed, as part of this week’s push to demonstrate what the North Korean leader called their “fiery friendship.”

Putin continued his Indo-Pacific tour on Thursday with a state visit to Vietnam, where he said he aims to build “reliable security architecture” in the region. Moscow and Hanoi signed 11 agreements and memorandums of understanding, including deals on oil, gas, nuclear science, and education. Vietnam also promised that it would help counter Western attempts to isolate Russia from the rest of the world.

All of this is part of Vietnam’s “bamboo diplomacy,” which seeks to balance relationships with major powers despite their animosity toward one another. Vietnam touts strong ties with Russia, China, India, South Korea, and the United States. Last weekend, Hanoi skipped a Ukraine peace summit hosted by Switzerland, to which Putin was not invited; in recent months, Vietnam has abstained on four U.N. resolutions condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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What We’re Following

Vaccine initiative in Africa. African leaders, health groups, and pharmaceutical companies joined French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Thursday to kick off a $1.2 billion project to accelerate vaccine production on the continent. The African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator will provide financial incentives to vaccine manufacturers to address access inequality, which was especially apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic.

South Africa was the only African country with the ability to produce any vaccines at the start of 2020, and only 2 percent of vaccines administered in Africa are made on the continent. The African Union seeks to increase this number to 60 percent by 2040.

Europe will provide three-quarters of the funding for the initiative, with Germany contributing the most at $318 million. France, the United States, Canada, Norway, and Japan will also donate. The World Health Organization and advocacy groups have argued that these steps are vital to help Africa be prepared for the next pandemic.

Kenya’s steep tax proposals. Anti-tax protests spread across Kenya on Thursday as parliamentarians debate a controversial finance bill. For three days, hundreds of Kenyans have decried state efforts to impose steep taxes on Nairobi’s medical insurance plan, vegetable oil, and fuel, among other products. The proposal aims to raise $2.7 billion to reduce the nation’s looming deficit.

Already, demonstrators have forced the government to withdraw plans to impose a 16 percent tax on bread and an annual 2.5 percent tax on vehicles. But many Kenyans believe that these concessions are not enough to stymie rising costs of living. This week’s protests are the largest against Kenyan President William Ruto since anti-government protests broke out last July, during which at least nine people were killed.

Canada designates IRGC. Canada designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization on Wednesday, allowing Ottawa to fine people who materially or financially support the forces. The move also requires Canadian banks to freeze any assets linked to the branch and bars thousands of senior Iranian officials from entering Canada. Tehran condemned Ottawa’s decision as an “unwise and unconventional” step.

“The Iranian regime has consistently displayed a complete disregard for human rights, both inside and outside Iran, as well as a willingness to destabilize the international rules-based order,” Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said. The IRGC boasts more than 190,000 active personnel. The United States listed it as a terrorist group in 2019, but major European governments continue to resist pressures to do the same.

Odds and Ends

Nautical researchers announced Thursday that they had discovered the world’s oldest deep-water shipwreck. Located roughly 56 miles from the coast of northern Israel, the merchant vessel is believed to have sunk between 1400 and 1300 B.C., when the Egyptian empire controlled much of the eastern Mediterranean coast and King Tutankhamun briefly held the throne.

It is unclear what caused the galley to sink; Israeli authorities said they plan to preserve the deep-sea shipwreck as is, without disturbing it further.