The United States and South Korea on Wednesday called on North Korea to withdraw its troops to Russia, fearing they could be used to fight in Ukraine, while Russia's ambassador to the UN called “simple statements» information reporting their presence.
According to Washington and Seoul, some 10,000 North Korean soldiers are in Russia, without their mission being clearly identified. But the Pentagon said on Tuesday that it had detected a “small number» of North Korean soldiers in the Russian region of Kursk, bordering Ukraine.
«These are mere assertions, which, in the absence of convincing evidence, are intended to divert attention from truly important issues that threaten international peace and security.“, assured Vassili Nebenzia, Russian ambassador to the UN, on Wednesday, accusing Washington in particular of reaching a new peak in terms of “disinformation».
«Even if everything our Western colleagues say about cooperation between Russia and North Korea were true, how come the United States and its allies are trying to impose a fallible logic maintaining that they have the right to help the Zelensky regime, to mobilize NATO defense and intelligence, while Russia's allies have no right to do the same“, he said.
The tone rose at the United Nations, with the deputy American ambassador to the UN then warning that North Korean soldiers would leave “necessarily in body bags» if they entered Ukraine to support Russia.
«So I would advise (North Korean) President Kim to think twice before engaging in such reckless and dangerous behavior», added Robert Wood before the UN Security Council.
«Escalade»
The Ukrainian ambassador to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, reaffirmed kyiv's accusations on the presence of 12,000 North Korean soldiers in Russia, adding that they should “begin direct participation in combat operations against Ukraine in November».
Earlier in the day, US Defense Minister Lloyd Austin held a conference with his South Korean counterpart Kim Yong-hyun during which they called on North Korea to “withdraw its troops from Russia».
A few hours later, Pyongyang, which has not confirmed or denied the presence of troops in Russia, fired, according to the South Korean army, a “long range ballistic missile (…) towards the East Sea“, also known as the Sea of Japan. This missile, according to the Japanese Minister of Defense, belonged to “the class of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM)».
For the South Korean Minister of Defense, the North Korean deployment could “lead to an escalation of threats to the security of the Korean Peninsula”.
The United States “will continue to work with allies and partners to discourage Russia from employing these troops in combat“, added Mr. Austin, while emphasizing that there was “fortes chances» let this already be the case.
The American minister further noted that North Korean soldiers were being distributed “Russian uniforms and equipment», an accusation supported by kyiv.
If North Korean troops are indeed deployed in Russia, “this would constitute a further escalation in North Korean support for Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine», Estimated the French ambassador to the UN Nicolas de Rivière.
Diplomatic ballet
The UN, for its part, indicated that it could not confirm these accusations through the voice of Miroslav Jenca, UN Under-Secretary General for Europe.
This deployment comes at a time when Ukraine announced on Tuesday the mobilization of 160,000 men, kyiv being faced with accelerating Russian advances.
The diplomatic ballet is intense: Russian diplomacy announced on Wednesday the arrival in Moscow of the North Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs, Choe Son Hui, for discussions “strategic».
There is a “high probability» that Pyongyang is asking Russia for technology transfers to support its weapons programs, as well as reconnaissance satellites, in exchange for the deployment of its forces, according to the South Korean Defense Minister.
For his part, the head of Chinese diplomacy, Wang Yi, discussed the war in Ukraine on Wednesday in Beijing with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko.
Russia and North Korea have strengthened their political and military alliance since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine in February 2022. Both are subject to sanctions: Pyongyang for its nuclear weapons program and Moscow for its war against kyiv.
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