00:00Russia and North Korea have just taken their wartime partnership to a new and alarming level.
00:05Russia's defense minister, Andrei Belousov, traveled to Pyongyang on Sunday
00:09and met personally with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un,
00:14emerging with an agreement to place their military cooperation on a, quote,
00:18sustainable, long-term basis.
00:20This is not a trade deal.
00:22This is an arms and manpower pact between two nuclear-armed states,
00:26built on a foundation of shared hostility toward the United States and its allies.
00:32Kim Jong-un has already sent thousands of North Korean troops
00:36to fight alongside Russian forces in the Kursk region.
00:40Where Ukraine launched its surprise incursion,
00:42Russia has awarded those soldiers its highest military honors.
00:47North Korea has also shipped massive quantities of artillery shells,
00:51rockets, and ballistic missiles to Russia.
00:53For the United States, this alliance represents a direct challenge.
00:57Two states actively working to erode American military dominance.
01:02One with an established nuclear arsenal.
01:04One potentially months away from miniaturizing a nuclear warhead.
01:09Pentagon officials have called the deepening of this relationship deeply concerning.
01:13The question now is whether it becomes the defining military threat of the decade.
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