New pact amplifies old threat

Japanese troops during an amphibious landing exercise in Tokunoshima, Japan. The Russia-North Korea defence pact may have rattled officials in South Korea and Japan, but both countries have long expected growing security challenges from Pyongyang. — ©2024 The New York Times Company

WITH ballistic missiles regularly flying nearby, Japan and South Korea need little reminder of the threat that North Korea and its nuclear arsenal poses to its neighbours.

But the stunning revival of a Cold War-era mutual defence agreement during a visit last month by President Vladimir Putin of Russia to Pyongyang, the North’s capital, amped up the pressure on some of the hermit kingdom’s closest neighbours.