NKorea’s UN envoy denies troops sent to Russia

International news section 23-10-2024

North Korea has not sent troops to Russia to help Moscow fight Ukraine, one of its representatives to the United Nations said on Monday, dismissing South Korea’s claims as “groundless rumor.”

Seoul’s spy agency said last Friday that Pyongyang had initiated a “large-scale” troop deployment to help its ally, claiming that 1,500 members of its special forces were already training in Russia’s Far East and ready to head soon for the frontlines of the war in Ukraine.

“As for the so-called military cooperation with Russia, my delegation does not feel any need for comment on such groundless, [stereotypical] rumors,” a North Korean representative told a committee meeting during the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday night.

Seoul’s claims were “aimed at smearing the image of the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) and undermining the legitimate, friendly and cooperative relations between two sovereign states,” the representative said, using the acronym of the North’s official name.

Pyongyang and Moscow have been allies since the former’s founding after World War II, and have drawn even closer since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Seoul and Washington long claiming that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been sending weapons for use in Ukraine.

North Korean state media have not commented on the purported troop deployment.

Russia has also not confirmed the troop deployment but defended its military cooperation with the North.

After South Korea’s Foreign Ministry in Seoul summoned him to complain, Moscow’s envoy Georgy Zinoviev “stressed that cooperation between Russia and North Korea… is not directed against the interests of South Korea’s security.”

Neither the North Atlantic Treaty Organization nor the United States has confirmed the deployment, but both have cast it as a potentially dangerous escalation in the long-running Ukraine conflict.

“We have seen reports the DPRK has sent forces and is preparing to send additional soldiers to Ukraine to fight alongside Russia,” Robert Wood, US ambassador to the UN, told the Security Council.

“If true, this marks a dangerous and highly concerning development and an obvious deepening of the DPRK-Russia military relationship,” Wood said.

The US and its allies have already voiced concern about North Korea providing weapons to Russia, which sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

The South Korean government “strongly condemned” Pyongyang on Tuesday, urging North Korean troops to be immediately withdrawn.

“North Korea, which has been providing large-scale military weapons to Russia, sending troops to Russia’s illegal war of aggression in Ukraine is a significant security threat not only to our country but also to the international community,” Seoul’s National Security Council said.

The government “urged the immediate withdrawal of North Korean troops and declared that if the current military alliance between North Korea and Russia continues, it will not stand idly by.”

“In response to the advancement of military cooperation between Russia and North Korea following the deployment of North Korean combat troops, the government will implement phased countermeasures,” it added.

Also on Tuesday, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that Seoul was considering sending a team of personnel to Ukraine to monitor North Korean troops being deployed, citing a government source.

The source said that, if deployed, the team was likely to consist of military personnel from intelligence divisions to analyze North Korean battlefield strategies and participate in interrogating any captured prisoners of war.

Yonhap also reported that a pro-Russia Telegram account posted a photo showing the Russian and North Korean flags side by side on a Ukrainian battlefield.