Constantly amazed by the big-brain takes around here. Please see the link below describing Russia and North Korea's mutual defense pact:
https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2024-07/news/north-korea-rus...
https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2024-07/news/north-korea-rus...
That's also why North Korea bargained some goods in exchange of their support.
> they didn't have a military alliance.
Please just admit you were wrong. If you cannot do that then there is no point in responding to you.
Maybe you can point at some pre-existing defense pact to support your claims signed before the war but I'm not aware of any existing.
It's possible that I missed it though but given that Putin flew in there when the situation got worse to negotiate their war support, I doubt they had one.