North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, left, speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting at the Vostochny Cosmodrome outside the city of Tsiolkovsky in the Russian Far East, Sept. 13, 2023, in this photo released by the North's official Korean Central News Agency. Yonhap

Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to make a high-profile visit to North Korea for a two-day stay starting Tuesday, in an action deepening the anti-Western ties between Moscow and Pyongyang and a strategy to weaken the regional influence of the United States.

The visit signifies the two sides' efforts to cement what South Korea, the U.S. and its other Western allies describe as a “dangerous partnership” to meet each other's needs — ammunition for Putin's ongoing invasion of Ukraine and technological support for Kim Jong-un's ambition to advance the North's nuclear and missile capabilities. In this regard, the two leaders are expected to sign a treaty on "comprehensive strategic partnership," according to Russia's news agency TASS.

According to the two countries' news media, Putin is visiting the North for the first time in nearly a quarter century, which is viewed as a reciprocal gesture after Kim's trip to the Russian Far East last November.

Putin's foreign affairs aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters that Putin would fly to Pyongyang late on Tuesday evening and the “entire substantive part” of the visit will take place on Wednesday.

The visit will involve official summits and unofficial private talks between Putin and Kim as well as joint press announcements, along with a handful of ceremonial events that Pyongyang has been preparing for weeks.

Ushakov said the visit may yield a treaty on a comprehensive strategic partnership between the two sides, adding “this document is also being worked on and if it is signed, it will replace the fundamental documents that were inked in 1961 and 2000.”

The Kremlin revealed Putin's "Order on the signing of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty between Russia and the DPRK," which approves the Russian foreign ministry's proposal to sign an amendment to the treaty's draft that is not of a complete nature.

In 1961, the Soviet Union and North Korea signed an alliance treaty on mutual friendship, cooperation and assistance, which included a clause on automatic military intervention in the event of an armed invasion or war. However, this was abolished in 1996. In 2000, Russia and the North signed the Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighborliness, and Cooperation, but it did not stipulate a military alliance between the two sides.

Banners hang in Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang, Tuesday, in anticipation of a state visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin. TASS-Yonhap

Experts said the comprehensive strategic partnership that Russia mentioned is closer to a political statement, and chances are very slim for the two sides to ink an alliance-level treaty which includes automatic military intervention.

“In modern diplomatic agreements between countries, it is very difficult to observe clauses stipulating automatic military intervention,” said Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

“To include such a clause, the two sides should have relations equivalent at least to a comprehensive strategic alliance, which is close to that between South Korea and the U.S. Given Russia's relations with other countries including South Korea and the U.S., it will be a very difficult choice.”

Russia currently maintains a number of comprehensive strategic partnerships with countries including Vietnam and Mongolia. Hong said the partnership with Vietnam does not contain military-related clauses, while the one with Mongolia has contents on Mongolia's status as a nuclear weapon-free zone.

Due to this, the comprehensive strategic partnership between Russia and North Korea will likely focus on energy, food and other economic cooperation.

In a contribution piece to North Korea's Rodong Sinmun, Tuesday, Putin said, “We will develop alternative trade and mutual settlements mechanisms not controlled by the West, jointly oppose illegitimate unilateral restrictions, and shape the architecture of equal and indivisible security in Eurasia.”

This is interpreted to be aligned with Russia's de-dollarization efforts and a tactic to counter international financial sanctions jointly.

Russia has attempted to expand the use of its rubles through multilateral development institutions to weaken U.S. influence, but North Korea has long been preferring dollar-based transactions.

“In 2014, the two sides agreed to settlements in rubles in all trade, but it appears that no significant profit has been observed because the North has always been preferring dollar-based transactions and the two sides' trade volumes have remained mediocre,” a South Korean government official said.

The South Korean government said on Tuesday it has been monitoring the progress of the Putin-Kim meeting, but its Director of National Security Chang Ho-jin said in a TV interview on Monday that “we have already communicated with Russia in a warning message that Moscow should not cross a certain line.”

John Kirby, the White House's national security communications adviser, speaks during a daily press briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., Monday. AFP-Yonhap

John Kirby, the White House's national security communications adviser, told reporters Monday that the U.S. is “concerned about is the deepening relationship between these two countries.”

Kirby said the worry was not just that “North Korean ballistic missiles are still being used to hit Ukrainian targets, but because there could be some reciprocity here that could affect security on the Korean Peninsula.” The “reciprocity” Kirby was referring to appears to be possible military technology transfers.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi also expressed concerns over possible weapons and military-related trade and vowed to cooperate with South Korea, the U.S. and the international community for the complete implementation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.

Against that backdrop, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported Tuesday that the Ukrainian defense ministry recently announced that North Korea provided 1.8 million rounds of 122- and 155-millimeter shells for use in the war in Ukraine, adding that North Korea is supplying ammunition, ballistic and surface-to-air missiles, as well as parts for Russian vehicles.

“Chances are very low for the two sides to openly declare their military cooperation during Putin's visit,” Hong said. “Even if there is an agreement on military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, it is highly unlikely that it will be disclosed publicly, because there is no need to provoke other countries unnecessarily.”

South Korea and China held two-plus-two talks of their senior foreign and defense officials, Tuesday, in what appears to be Seoul's counter to the Putin-Kim meeting. Seoul's First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong-kyun and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong attended.

South Korean foreign ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk said the talks would involve discussions on the Putin-Kim meeting.