Moscow and Pyongyang display their unity until “victory” in Ukraine

Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service via Associated Press “There is no doubt that […] the Russian army and people will win a great victory” in Ukraine, Choe Son-hui said during a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Agence France-Presse in Moscow

Published at 10:12 Updated at 18:43

• Europe

North Korea will stand by Russia until its “victory” in Ukraine, the North Korean foreign minister warned in Moscow, at a time when the West denounces the deployment of thousands of North Korean soldiers near the front.

“There is no doubt that […] the Russian army and people will win a great victory” in Ukraine, Choe Son-hui said during a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. The latter praised the “very close contacts […] established between the military and security services” of the two countries and expressed Moscow’s “gratitude” “for the principled position” of North Korea.

“We reaffirm that we will always remain firmly at the side of our Russian comrades until the day of victory,” the North Korean minister added, according to a Russian translation of her remarks.

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 visit to Pyongyang in June.

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 soldiers to fight in the conflict with Ukraine.

First line

Moscow and Pyongyang have neither confirmed nor denied the arrival of these troops, but according to Western sources, they are about to be deployed on the battlefield, in the Russian region of Kursk where the Ukrainian army has controlled several hundred 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.

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Citing U.S. intelligence, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that of the 10,000 North Korean troops that Washington says have crossed into Russia, up to 8,000 “have been deployed to the Kursk region.”

“We have not yet seen these troops deployed in combat against Ukrainian forces, but we expect that to happen in the coming days,” he added.

Russia, he said, has equipped North Korean troops with Russian uniforms and trained them in artillery, drones, and basic infantry operations, including trench clearing, “which indicates that it intends to use these forces in frontline operations,” he said. line”.

Such a deployment will be a new blow for Ukraine, which has seen the West procrastinate for months on the aid it is requesting.

On the ground, Ukraine, already short of 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.

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Allies 'wait'

And both Americans and Europeans are preventing Ukraine from using the missiles they have delivered on targets in Russian territory, for fear of provoking an escalation by the Kremlin.

But for kyiv, it is the absence of Western firmness that encourages Vladimir Putin to escalate. On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thus attacked the “zero” reaction of the West to the deployment of North Korean soldiers and the internationalization of the war.

On 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,” 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 “that they badly need.”

Against this backdrop, South Korea, a major arms exporter, has said it is exploring the possibility of sending weapons directly to Ukraine in response.

A few days before the US presidential election, Washington announced on Friday a new military aid package to Ukraine worth $425 million.

The meeting between Sergei Lavrov and Choe Son-hui also comes at a time when North Korea is ratcheting up tensions with a missile launch intercontinental.

Ms. Choe also said in Moscow that her country “will not change the course of strengthening its nuclear arsenal under any circumstances.”

At a Moscow train station, the two ministers unveiled a plaque in honor of the visit to Moscow of 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 the forces of the communist north, the start of the Korean War.

Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un “are trying to be worthy of the contribution to our friendship that was made by our predecessors,” Mr. Lavrov commented.