I’m hard pressed to see how this moves the needle at all for Russia in giving advantages it didn’t already possess before this treaty. Russia was already getting artillery shells from the Norks. How would the Norks send their army to help Russia in Ukraine, ostensibly? Walk?
Do the Norks have a credible nuclear umbrella with which to offer others protection under?
I think the Norks can barely feed their army sitting at home, much less logistically supply it while and during sending it abroad to fight battles, no?
A difference (this pact) which makes no difference, IS no difference.
A thing Stalin's slaves built called the Trans-Siberian railroad
In a bargaining situation each side has something the other wants. You have to assume this was something North Korea wanted. It’s not something physical and real in the current or foreseeable contexts. Therefore, it is political. The North Koreans see it as an increase in stature and acceptance...normalization amongst the world’s evil empires. Also, the North sees the entire world, including China, as potential enemies. Thier dictator would make a raving paranoid seem as normal as the clerk who rings up your grocery order. (I assume that clerk isn’t also stocking you at your home. You can’t tell. They smile too much.) *Where the Hell did I leave my tinfoil?*
People don’t see it. Putin is adding nations in his Axis. Kim wants a spot at the table. North Korea gives Russia weapons, and rockets, Russia gives back Oil and Food Grains, both they have lots of to give. Worse they can give Kim better rocket designs and ways to make nukes smaller and more deadly. Now, Putin is off to Hanoi and Vietnam, once a friend of the US, now inching towards Russia. Getting them to sign on a treaty would be a feather in his cap. Want war with Moscow? You will have to fight a cabal of nations. Want to risk Nuke War or WW III? Better have a bigger army and navy. Now the Axis is Russia, China, Iran, Syria, North Korea, and who knows, maybe Cuba, Serbia, Vietnam, Venezuela, and South Africa? How many of our allies can we count on besides England and Canada? France? Germany? maybe Poland. Putin is playing the old 18th Century game of “The Great Game power politics. In this game we have a weak hand at the poker table. A pair of kings only.