The two countries have grown considerably closer since Vladimir Putin launched an attack on Ukraine in February 2022.
Published on 01/11/2024 12:04
Reading time: 2min
North Korea will strengthen its nuclear arsenal in the context of the war in Ukraine. The dictatorial regime's Foreign Minister, Choe Son-hui, assured his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov,during a meeting in Russia, Thursday October 31. North Korean leader Kim Jon-un “clearly indicated that the current situation (…) obliges us more than ever to strengthen our modern offensive strategic nuclear weapons, as well as to improve our nuclear response capacity”detailed the minister, according to comments translated into Russian.
Russia and North Korea have grown significantly closer since Vladimir Putin launched his attack on Ukraine in February 2022, with the two countries notably concluding a mutual defense agreement during the Russian president's June visit to Pyongyang. North Korea is suspected of requesting Russian technology in exchange for its military support.
“We reaffirm that we will always stand firmly alongside our Russian comrades until Victory Day” in Ukraine, Choe Son-hui also said. The latter accuses the United States and South Korea of developing a “alliance with a nuclear component”, judging that the “The situation could become explosive at any time on the Korean peninsula.”
On Thursday, South Korea, Pyongyang's great rival, accused its neighbor of having delivered millions of munitions to Russia, while the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted that 10,000 North Korean troops have entered Russia, including 8,000 “deployed in the Kursk region”on the border with Ukraine.
In an interview granted Thursday to the South Korean channel KBS, Volodymyr Zelensky estimated that President Vladimir Putin “tests the reaction of the West, the reaction of NATO and the reaction of South Korea” by committing this first group of North Korean soldiers to the Ukrainian front. And if the Western reaction remains non-existent, “then the number of North Korean troops on our borders will increase”, warned the Ukrainian head of state.
