Secretary General: NATO must be strengthened due to North Korea-Russia developing relations

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said that Russia's new defensive pact with North Korea shows increasing alignment among authoritarian powers and underscores the importance of democracies presenting a united front.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a deal with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un that included a mutual defense pledge, a move that overhauls Moscow's policy towards Pyongyang, according to Reuters.

Stoltenberg said that 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. They are supporting each other in a way we haven't seen before," he told a panel discussion during an official visit to Ottawa.

"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 means it is all the more important that NATO works with allies in the Asia-Pacific, he said, adding this was why leaders from Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea had been invited to a NATO summit in Washington next month.

President Putin is on a state visit to North Korea on June 18-19. The deal signed by the sides envisages mutual assistance in case of aggression against one of the participants. President Putin also thinks about the development of military-technical cooperation with North Korea.