Senator: Russia-North Korea Military Pact a Result of Biden’s ‘Projection of Weakness’

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un signed a mutual defense pact in Pyongyang, stoking fears that the agreement will lead to escalating aggression against the U.S. and its allies.

While uncertainties remain about specifics, the pact states that if one of the two countries is invaded, the other must deploy “all means at its disposal without delay” to provide “military and other assistance.” South Korean analyst Cheong Seong Chang stated that the accord is the strongest since the Cold War. “North Korea and Russia have completely restored their Cold War-era military alliance,” he asserted.

Following the signing of the agreement, Putin traveled to Vietnam for a state visit on Thursday, where he threatened to bolster North Korea’s arms. In response to a question about the U.S. supplying Ukraine with long-range weapons for its war against the invading Russian army, Putin remarked, “Those who supply these weapons believe that they are not at war with us. … [W]e then reserve the right to supply weapons to other regions of the world.”

The pact and comments come just one week after a convoy of four Russian Navy ships and a nuclear-powered submarine arrived in Cuba’s Havana harbor, just 90 miles from the coast of Florida.

The threatening activity from the world’s second largest military superpower is highly concerning for lawmakers like Senator Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), who insisted during Thursday’s “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” that it would not be happening if not for the feeble foreign policy of the Biden administration.

“It’s not a natural relationship,” he said of the Russia-North Korea deal. “You know, some people might think, ‘Well, gee, a couple communist countries getting together, that doesn’t seem like such a strange deal.’ But the reality is, up until now, they hadn’t had the common enemy that they have in such a big way as they have in the United States, and a common enemy [that is] increasingly projecting weakness on the geopolitical stage.”

Cramer continued, “Because of that projection of weakness, I believe they feel emboldened, but they also feel emboldened by the fact that they feel threatened. But you throw in the mullahs in Iran, and you include Xi Jinping and China, and you’re seeing this axis of evil that is a direct result of the projection of weakness by Joe Biden and the Biden administration on the world stage. It’s a significant problem that has a lot of problematic potential to it if it continues this way.”

Cramer, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, went on to observe that the lessons learned from history do not bode well for what could be on the horizon in terms of armed conflict involving the U.S.

“It is an axis of evil reconstituting itself, much like what happened 100 years ago. And if we’re not careful, we’re going to see the same result as we did 100 years ago,” he warned. “Except that the United States of America is not going to be as poised to protect itself, much less lead a coalition into a third world war, which we would like to avoid. Again, Ronald Reagan prevented another war by being the strongest nation in the world and projecting that strength and bringing the Soviet Union to its knees without firing a single shot, along with … Pope John Paul and Margaret Thatcher in Great Britain. We just don’t have those statesmen anymore in the country or on the global stage.”

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins concurred, further arguing that the U.S. has lost its “moral foundation.” “It’s hard for us to be taken seriously on the international stage when we have an administration [whose] top foreign policy objective is to push abortion and the LGBTQ agenda,” he added.

Cramer agreed, noting the arduous process that resulted in the recent passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

“We spent hours of that time discussing [these issues], as though fighting wars is secondary to a social experiment whereby they want to pay for … members of the military to have transgender surgeries, to pay for the travel for abortions. … I’m sure other countries look at us and go, ‘My gosh, these people are going to be easy to beat in a war. They’re more consumed with transgender identity politics than they are with defending freedom in their own country, much less around the world.’ So I know it all matters.”