The war in Ukraine is now being fought in the East. And North Korea will stand by Russia until “its victory”, assures Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui. Enough to make his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, smile during their meeting in Moscow this Friday, November 1. The head of diplomacy took the opportunity to welcome “the very close contacts” between the military of the two countries. The stated objective is clear: to strengthen the Moscow-Pyongyang axis at a time when Ukraine and the West denounce the deployment of thousands of North Korean soldiers near Donbass, seeing it as a dangerous “escalation” of the conflict.
A total of 8,000 troops have been deployed to Russia’s Kursk border region and are ready to fight Ukrainian forces, according to Washington. “We have not yet seen these troops deploy in combat against Ukrainian forces, but we expect that to happen in the coming days,” added US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. In a video broadcast by the CNN channelNorth Korean soldiers were lining up to receive equipment at a Russian training camp.
“Pyongyang has one of the largest armies in the world, with 1.2 million soldiers, but it has not fought in a major conflict since the Korean War of 1950-1953,” recalls the New York Times. In addition to troops to fight in Ukraine, the Asian ally has supplied more than “1,000 missiles” to Russia, according to South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun. This is in addition to the millions of munitions already delivered by Pyongyang in the past. Two months earlier, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Robert Koepcke said Russia had purchased more than 16,500 containers of munitions and military equipment from Korea. of the North since September 2023.
China remains silent
Faced with this strategic rapprochement, China pretends to look elsewhere. Beijing insisted, Thursday, October 31, that the links between Pyongyang and Moscow did not concern it. “North Korea and Russia are two independent states. How they develop their relations is their concern,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said. Note that Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country has been engaged in a war since 2022 with Ukraine, has concluded a military cooperation agreement with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was surprised by Beijing’s “silence”, and denounced the inaction of his allies. “I think the reaction to this is zero, it has been zero,” he lashed out in an interview with South Korean media. Speaking of a “real escalation of the war”, his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andriï Sybiga, argued that this should encourage the West to take a “strong decision” aimed at “lifting all restrictions on the use of missiles long-range in Russian territory”, which kyiv has been demanding for months.
“Divert attention”
Beyond the Ukrainian front, one of North Korea’s concerns is developing its nuclear arsenal. On Thursday, October 31, it tested a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile. According to Japan, the device belongs to “the category of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM)”, which have a range of at least 5,500 kilometers. But according to Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, to AFP, the North Korean fire “appears to have been carried out to divert attention from international criticism of the deployment of its troops” in Russia.
Unsurprisingly, Pyongyang repeated on Friday that it was going to strengthen its nuclear arsenal while it is suspected by the West of using its support for Russia as a bargaining chip. “It is less clear whether Vladimir Putin will go so far as to help North Korea overcome the technological obstacles linked to its nuclear and ballistic programs,” continues the New York Times. A situation that the South Korean neighbor is monitoring closely, while the two countries are at war. “The fact that the North is gaining combat experience in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict,” for the first time since the 1950s, creates “a serious risk for South Korea’s national security,” the head of the war said. Yoon Suk Yeol State.
The actions of the North Korean dictator could push Seoul to align itself with Ukraine, while it remained neutral until then. “South Korea is really angry with Russia, because everyone understands that in this agreement between Putin and Kim Jong-un there is probably a story about a nuclear bomb, which the North Korean leader has, but that he would like to make it more effective,” explains political scientist Rostyslav Mourzahoulov in an interview with independent press agency Unian, translated by International Mail. It remains to be seen what form this new aid to kyiv could take.