Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to North Korea on Wednesday was filled with lavish ceremony and pomp, but the world will be closely watching after the two nations vowed to assist each other should either country face "aggression".
Mr Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a new partnership in Pyongyang that included a mutual defence pledge.
Mr Putin's first visit to North Korea in 24 years was the culmination of a recent strengthening of relations between the two states.
Following their summit, Mr Kim said the two countries had a "fiery friendship," and that the deal was their "strongest-ever treaty," putting the relationship at the level of an alliance.
He vowed full support for Russia's war in Ukraine.
Mr Putin called it a "breakthrough document" reflecting shared desires to move relations to a higher level.
The North's KCNA news agency on Thursday released the full text of the document, which also included cooperation on nuclear energy, space exploration, food and energy security.
The agency said Article 4 of the agreement stated that if one of the countries was invaded and pushed into a state of war, the other must deploy "all means at its disposal without delay" to provide "military and other assistance".
The two countries would also not sign any treaty with a third country that infringed on the interests of the other and would not allow their territories to be used by any country to harm the other's security and sovereignty, KCNA said, citing the agreement.
North Korea and the former Soviet Union signed a treaty in 1961, which experts say necessitated Moscow's military intervention if the North came under attack.
The deal was discarded after the collapse of the USSR, replaced by one in 2000 that offered weaker security assurances.
The two nations, increasingly isolated on the global stage, can provide value to each other.
Washington says North Korea has unlawfully sent dozens of ballistic missiles and over 11,000 containers of munitions to Russia in support for its war in Ukraine.
North Korea meanwhile wants Russian knowledge and expertise to assist its missile and nuclear programs, as well as economic assistance and Russian oil.
Mr Putin said he did not "exclude the development of military-technical cooperation with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea".
Putin's war against the West
Shunned by the West, Vladimir Putin has few options when it comes to forming alliances that will help him prosecute his war in Ukraine.
University of Oxford lecturer Edward Howell says the partnership with North Korea represents an anti-West block.
"It sends a clear signal to the West of the emergence of an anti-Western, anti-democratic coalition of states," he said.
"North Korea gains cash, food and technological assistance, and Russia gains ammunition."
Professor Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, says the partnership also confirms the highly fractured state of geopolitics.
"In some ways, we are beyond what we saw in the Cold War, because the Cold War was mostly cold," he said.
"We've got a hot war in Ukraine, and I think the visit of Vladimir Putin to Pyongyang is a sign of the depth and gravity of the rift that has opened up between Russia and the West."
He says the pact is concerning for the United States and complicates matters both in Ukraine and on the Korean peninsula.
"We're not talking about a weapon here and there, we're talking about hundreds of thousands if not millions of artillery shells [coming from North Korea]," he said.
"It will also make it more difficult for the United States and its partners to make progress in denuclearising North Korea."
China, North Korea's most important economic partner and an ally of Russia, has remained silent so far.
"Is China going to throw its lock in with Russia and North Korea, or is it going to try to straddle and avoid the slippery slope of heading towards a new Cold War with the United States — I think right now it's difficult to tell," Professor Kupchan said.
A lavish welcome
North Korea put on quite the welcome for Vladimir Putin.
Kim Jong Un met Mr Putin at the airport in the early hours of Wednesday morning local time.
During the day, Mr Putin was welcomed with a ceremony at Pyongyang's main square.
Cheering crowds gathered for Mr Putin's visit, some waving North Korean flags and holding posters showing Mr Putin.
Buildings were also decorated with giant Russian flags and portraits of Mr Putin.
Mr Putin gifted Mr Kim with a luxury Russian limousine, even driving him around before they switched places.
Mr Putin also gifted Mr Kim a tea seat and a naval officer's dagger, while Mr Kim's presents to Mr Putin included an artwork depicting the Russian leader and a pair of pungsan dogs.
Later, the pair watched a concert together.
NATO chief warning on pact
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the new defensive pact showed increasing alignment among authoritarian powers and underscored the importance of democracies presenting a united front.
Mr Stoltenberg said North Korea had provided "an enormous amount of ammunition" to Russia while both China and Iran were supporting Moscow militarily in its war against Ukraine.
"We need to be aware that authoritarian powers are aligning more and more," he told a panel discussion during an official visit to Ottawa.
"They are supporting each other in a way we haven't seen before.
"When they are more and more aligned — authoritarian regimes like North Korea and China, Iran, Russia — then it's even more important that we are aligned as countries believing in freedom and democracy," he said.
The growing closeness between Russia and other Asian nations meant it was all the more important that NATO worked with allies in the Asia-Pacific, he said.
This was why leaders from Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea had been invited to a NATO summit in Washington next month, he added.
ABC/wires
