WATCH: Pentagon holds briefing as aid deliveries resume through U.S.-built pier in Gaza

WASHINGTON — More than 656 metric tons, or 1.4 million pounds, of aid were delivered through the U.S. military-built pier in Gaza on Thursday in the hours after it resumed operations, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said.

Watch the event in the player above.

The pier was re-anchored to the beach in Gaza and started operating Wednesday after the military temporarily removed it due to weather, Ryder said. Aid groups have decried the pier as a distraction that took pressure off Israel to open more land border crossings, which are far more productive.

Since the pier opened on May 17, more than 4,100 tons, or 9.1 million pounds, of food and aid have been delivered by sea and unloaded in Gaza. However, much of the aid has lingered in the storage area right by the pier, so although it was provided to Gaza, delivery trucks have not driven it into the people who need it most.

Ryder directed questions about aid distribution to the United Nation’s World Food Program.

The U.N. has suspended cooperation with the U.S.-led pier project since June 9, a day after the Israeli military used the area around the pier in a hostage rescue that killed more than 270 Palestinians.

READ MORE: U.S.-built pier in Gaza is facing its latest challenge — whether UN will keep delivering aid

The U.S. and Israeli militaries say no part of the pier was used in the raid. The U.N. is concerned that any such use — or even a perception of it by fighters and ordinary people in Gaza — makes their continued role in the project untenable.

At issue are the safety of humanitarian workers, and humanitarian groups’ principles of neutrality, the U.N. says.

Russia and North Korea’s military assistance pact

The Pentagon’s news briefing took place a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a new strategic partnership that rattled the region and beyond.

The pact requires both countries to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance in the event of war, according to North Korean state media. While the agreement, inked Wednesday at a summit in Pyongyang, could represent the countries’ strongest deal signed after the Cold War, there are differing opinions on how strong the security commitment is.

Kim claimed that the deal elevated bilateral relations to the level of an alliance, while Putin was more understated and did not call it an alliance.

WATCH: Putin signs pact with North Korea that could increase weapons for Russia’s war in Ukraine

North Korean state media released the text of the agreement, which also includes broader cooperation in military, foreign policy and trade. Russia has not published its version of the text.

Relations between sprawling Russia and small, isolated North Korea — both of them nuclear powers — have warmed significantly in recent years amid Russia’s growing acrimony with the West over the invasion of Ukraine and suppression of all domestic opposition.

One of the first knock-on effects of the agreement came Thursday, when South Korea’s government said it would reconsider its policy of limiting its support to Ukraine to non-lethal supplies. South Korea, a growing arms exporter, has provided humanitarian aid to Ukraine, but it has not directly provided weapons to Kyiv.