“We reaffirm that we will always stand firmly alongside our Russian comrades until the day of victory,” added the North Korean minister, according to a Russian translation of her remarks.
Mutual Defense Agreement
Russia and North Korea, which view the United States as an existential enemy, have grown considerably closer since Vladimir Putin launched an assault 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 has been suspected for many months of supplying large quantities of shells to Russia as well as hundreds of missiles. Now it would also provide thousands of troops to fight in the conflict with Ukraine.
Moscow and Pyongyang have neither confirmed nor denied the arrival of these troops, but according to the West, they are about to be deployed on the battlefield, in the Russian region of Kursk where the Ukrainian army controls several hundreds of km² since August.
North Korea is also suspected of asking in exchange for technologies that will help it strengthen its nuclear arsenal, in particular its ballistic missiles.
War in Ukraine: what can North Korea bring to Russia?
The sending of 10 to 12,000 North Korean soldiers to Russia raises questions. Without experience of high-intensity warfare, and not speaking the same language, their possible military added value in Ukraine remains to be demonstrated. On the other hand, this contingent would have much more to learn from the Russians. Decryption
10,000 North Korean soldiers in Russia
Citing American intelligence services, the head of diplomacy Antony Blinken indicated Thursday that of the 10,000 North Korean troops which, according to Washington, entered Russia, up to 8,000 “were deployed in the Kursk region “. “We have not yet seen these troops deploy into combat against Ukrainian forces, but we expect that to happen in the coming days.”
Russia has, he said, equipped North Korean soldiers with Russian uniforms and trained these troops in artillery, drones, basic infantry operations, including trench cleaning, “which indicates that it fully intends to use these forces in front-line operations.”
Such a deployment will constitute a new blow for Ukraine, which has seen the West procrastinating for months on the aid it requests. On the ground, Ukraine, already lacking men and ammunition, is retreating on multiple sections of the front.
In October, the Russian army advanced by almost 500 km² in Ukraine, the largest territorial gain in a month since March 2022 and the first weeks of the conflict.
Western passivity
And Americans and Europeans are greatly preventing Ukraine from using the missiles they have delivered on targets on Russian territory, for fear of provoking an escalation by the Kremlin.
But for kyiv, it is the absence of Western firmness which encourages Vladimir Putin to escalate. On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attacked the “zero” reaction of Westerners to the deployment of North Korean soldiers and the internationalization of the war. Friday evening, he again accused his allies of passivity.
“Now we see all the sites where Russia is gathering these North Korean soldiers on its territory, all their camps. We could strike preemptively, if we had the ability to strike far enough,” Mr. Zelensky said, accusing his allies of “just waiting for the North Korean army to start hitting the Ukrainians” instead of providing the long-range weapons “which it badly needs”. In this context, South Korea, a major arms exporter, has indicated that it is studying the possibility of sending weapons directly to Ukraine in response.
A few days before the American presidential election, Washington announced on Friday new military aid to Ukraine amounting to $425 million.
Tribute to Stalin and Kim Il Sung
The meeting between Sergei Lavrov and Choe Son Hui also comes at a time when North Korea is raising tensions with the firing of an intercontinental missile. Ms. Choe also said in Moscow that her country “will in no way change the course of strengthening its nuclear arsenal.”
At a Moscow train station, the two ministers unveiled a plaque in honor of the visit to Moscow by Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Un's grandfather, for a meeting with Joseph Stalin in 1949, a few months before the invasion of the south of the peninsula by forces from the communist north, start of the Korean War.
