Seoul concerned about Russia-North Korea rapprochement, Zelensky calls for “real pressure”

South Korea expressed Friday his "serious concern" After the ratification the day before by Russian deputies of a defense treaty between Russia and North Korea, the president Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanding a “strong reaction” from his Western supporters.

According to the Ukrainian leader, North Korean soldiers will begin fighting Ukrainian troops from Sunday, raising fears of a new “escalation” in the 32-month war between Russia and Ukraine.

North Korea said on Friday that a deployment of its troops in Russia would be “in accordance” with international law, without confirming or denying the presence of its soldiers.

“If what the international media is talking about exists, I think it would be something done in accordance with the rules of international law,” Kim Jong Gyu, North Korea's vice foreign minister in charge of Russian affairs, was quoted as saying by the North's official KCNA news agency.

The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Brussels, October 17, 2024 © AFP – NICOLAS TUCAT

Volodymyr Zelensky called on the West to “punish” the Russia-North Korea duo, which have grown closer over the past two years, with kyiv's allies accusing Pyongyang of supplying ammunition to the Russian army. “We need a strong response (…) from world leaders,” he demanded.

Seoul expressed its “grave concern”, demanding “the immediate withdrawal of North Korean troops (from Russia) and the cessation of illegal cooperation” between Moscow and Pyongyang.

The United States and Japan have also expressed “their grave concerns about the deployment of North Korean troops in Russia, potentially for use on the battlefield against Ukraine”, according to a spokesman for the American presidency, John Kirby.

In the process, the G7, which brings together seven of the most advanced economies in the world, announced on Friday an agreement for a loan of “approximately 50 billion dollars” to Ukraine, repaid by the interests of the assets Russians frozen under Western sanctions.

On Thursday, Russian MPs voted unanimously and unsurprisingly to ratify the “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty” with North Korea.

North Korean troops in Russia © AFP – Nicholas SHEARMAN

The text signed on June 19, during a rare visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Pyongyang, provides in Article 4 for “immediate military assistance” in the event of armed aggression by third countries.

South Korea and the United States say that thousands of North Korean soldiers are already training on Russian soil, as part of this increased cooperation.

And kyiv said Thursday it had evidence that Pyongyang soldiers had already arrived in the “combat zone” of the Russian border region of Kursk. Which Pyongyang and Moscow have denied.

– “It's up to us to decide” –

“According to our intelligence services, on October 27 and 28, Russia will use the first North Korean military in combat zones,” Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram on Friday.

Satellite image of Airbus Defence and Space released on October 18, 2024 by South Korean intelligence, showing according to it the Russian military base of Khabarovsk where North Korean soldiers are stationed © SOUTH KOREA'S NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE SERVICE – Handout

Shortly afterwards, a senior official in the Ukrainian presidency told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that this deployment could “happen both” on the front line in Ukraine and in the Kursk region, Russian territory where kyiv still controls hundreds of square kilometres since an offensive in the area in August.

For John Kirby, the sending of North Korean troops to Russia “shows how desperate Vladimir Putin is”.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz denounced “a serious fact”.

Faced with Western accusations, the Russian president reacted on Friday, in an interview broadcast by Russian state television.

Russian President Vladimir Putin at the BRICS summit in Kazan, October 24, 2024 © POOL – Maxim SHIPENKOV

“It is up to us to decide in a sovereign manner whether we put something in place or not, where, how, if we need it, or if we are simply going to organize, for example, (joint military) exercises, training or even share experience” from the field of battle, he said at the closing of the BRICS summit.

A drone struck a residential tower in kyiv on Friday evening, killing at least one person and injuring five others and causing a fire on several floors, emergency services said.

– “More flexibility” –

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, October 24, 2024 in Seoul © POOL – JEON HEON-KYUN

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said Thursday that his country would “not sit idly by”, announcing that Seoul would “more flexibly” consider supplying arms to Ukraine.

North Korea has adopted a new national anthem, state media reported Friday, a new move that would allow its leader Kim Jong Un to define his country as entirely separate from and in conflict with the South.

North Korea has already amended its constitution to define the South as a “hostile” state and in October dynamited roads and railways that once linked the two countries.

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