Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United States warned on Wednesday that North Korea was benefiting from Ukrainian troops fighting alongside Russia, with the experience gained making Pyongyang “more capable of waging war against its neighbours”.
Russia has forged closer diplomatic and military ties with North Korea since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
More than 12,000 North Korean troops are stationed in Russia and began fighting Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region last month, Dorothy Camille Shea, deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the U.N. Security Council.
News you can trust and daily fun, right in your inbox
Experience it firsthand — The Yodel is your go-to source for daily news, entertainment and light-hearted stories.
“North Korea has benefited greatly from receiving Russian military equipment, technology and experience, making it more capable of waging war against its neighbors,” Shea told the 15-member committee, which met to address what Pyongyang said Testing of new intermediates.
“North Korea, in turn, may be eager to exploit these improvements to promote arms sales and military training contracts around the world,” she said, using the abbreviation for the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations, Kim Song, said Monday’s missile test was part of a plan to strengthen the country’s defense capabilities. He accused the United States of practicing double standards.
“When the civilian death toll in Gaza exceeded 45,000, the United States glorified Israel’s evil mass killing atrocities as a right of self-defense… At the same time, it questioned North Korea’s legitimate exercise of its right of self-defense,” Kim told reporters at the Security Council .
Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, reiterated Moscow’s long-standing accusations that the United States, South Korea and Japan are provoking North Korea through military exercises. He also dismissed U.S. accusations that Russia intends to share satellite and space technology with Pyongyang as “completely baseless.”
“Such remarks are the latest example of baseless speculation aimed at discrediting bilateral cooperation between the Russian Federation and the friendly country of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” Nebenzia said. He also congratulated North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on his birthday on Wednesday.
Hwang Jung-kook, South Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations, told the Security Council that North Korean soldiers “are essentially slaves of Kim Jong Un, brainwashed to sacrifice their lives on distant battlefields to raise funds for his regime and acquire advanced military technology from Russia.”
North Korea has been under United Nations sanctions since 2006, which have been tightened over the years in an effort to prevent Pyongyang from developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Russia holds a veto over the 15-member body, making any further action by the Security Council unlikely.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Rod Nickell)
