{"id":134,"date":"2026-05-04T06:35:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T06:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/134\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T06:35:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T06:35:41","slug":"why-a-5-year-defence-pact-between-north-korea-and-russia-could-make-china-uneasy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/134\/","title":{"rendered":"Why a 5-year defence pact between North Korea and Russia could make China uneasy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">China may be feeling uneasy about talk of a rare five-year defence cooperation plan between North Korea and Russia that could accelerate Pyongyang\u2019s military modernisation on multiple fronts, analysts said.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Russian state news agency Tass, Russian Defence Minister Andrey Belousov held talks to North Korean leader <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/kim-jong-un?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Kim Jong-un<\/a> in Pyongyang on April 26, with Belousov describing relations between the countries as at an \u201cunprecedentedly high level\u201d.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Belousov also said preparations were under way for a five-year military cooperation plan, according to Tass.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cWe have reached an agreement with the DPRK\u2019s [Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea\u2019s] defence ministry to place our military cooperation on a sustainable long-term footing,\u201d Belousov reportedly said, referring to North Korea.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cWe are prepared to sign a Russian-Korean military cooperation plan for the 2027-2031 period this year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"North Korean leader Kim Jong-un greets Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin at the inaugural ceremony of a memorial museum dedicated to North Korean soldiers killed in the Ukraine conflict. Photo: KCNA via Reuters\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/a40e2ef5-01b9-4c66-818d-f4b68a097f13_b9acfdac.jpg\" title=\"North Korean leader Kim Jong-un greets Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin at the inaugural ceremony of a memorial museum dedicated to North Korean soldiers killed in the Ukraine conflict. Photo: KCNA via Reuters\"\/>North Korean leader Kim Jong-un greets Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin at the inaugural ceremony of a memorial museum dedicated to North Korean soldiers killed in the Ukraine conflict. Photo: KCNA via Reuters<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The North Korean state-run Korean Central News Agency did not report on the discussion about the five-year plan, instead saying Kim and Belousov had discussed a \u201cseries of issues\u201d to further consolidate and \u201clevel up strengthening and developing political and military cooperation and collaboration\u201d between Pyongyang and Moscow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China may be feeling uneasy about talk of a rare five-year defence cooperation plan between North Korea and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[139,136,135,134,74,138,141,140,131,133,132,34,129,137,130],"class_list":["post-134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pyongyang","tag-andrey-belousov","tag-beijing","tag-brookings-institution","tag-china","tag-donald-trump","tag-hudson-institute","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-kings-college-london","tag-kyungnam-university","tag-lim-eul-chul","tag-moscow","tag-north-korea","tag-pyongyang","tag-russia","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}