LIVE – Ukraine: North Korean involvement, a “dangerous widening” of the conflict, according to the United States and its allies

“A dangerous enlargement”. This is the warning issued on Monday, December 16, by the United States and its allies regarding North Korea's “direct” support for Russia in the conflict in Ukraine. “We urge North Korea to immediately cease all assistance to Russia for its war of aggression against Ukraine, including by withdrawing its troops,” said in a statement the heads of diplomacy of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, the United Kingdom United States, and the European Union.

Moscow and Pyongyang signed an official defense agreement at the beginning of December sealing their rapprochement marked, according to Washington, by the sending of more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers to help Russia fight Ukraine. kyiv said on Monday that“at least 30 soldiers” North Koreans, fighting alongside the Russian army, were injured or killed Saturday and Sunday in the Russian region of Kursk, partially occupied by kyiv forces.

• Read also

  Russian Orechnik missiles: Vladimir Putin considers their deployment in Belarus “possible”

In their press release, the ten countries and the EU also denounce “North Korea's export of ballistic missiles, artillery shells and other military equipment to Russia for use on the battlefield against Ukraine.” Westerners fear that in exchange for this assistance, Moscow will help Pyongyang. The heads of diplomacy thus expressed their “deep concern” concerning “any political, military or economic support that Russia may provide to North Korea's illegal weapons program, including weapons of mass destruction.”