“When we have to decide something, we decide, but the sovereign decision is ours, do we use it, don’t we use it, do we need it.”, Putin clarified on Russian state television. “It’s about us”.
The United States had already disclosed that it had evidence that North Korea had sent 3,000 soldiers to Russia to deploy in Ukraine.
The Russian president noted that the West has repeatedly said that Ukraine must guarantee Ukraine’s security – “with or without NATO”.
“They soon realize the futility of such an approach in relations with Russia, which would be better for everyone, and perhaps, above all, for themselves.Putin added.
Russian President and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement during Putin’s visit to Pyongyang in June.
According to Putin, “Article 4 of the treaty states that if one party is the target of an armed attack by a state or several states and becomes involved in war, the other party shall immediately provide military assistance and other assistance. By all means at your disposal.”
Kiev investigates support for Pyongyang as a crime of aggression
Ukrainian prosecutors revealed Friday that they have opened an investigation into North Korea’s support for Russia in the war as a crime of aggression.
“North Korean officials face accusations of arming and supplying ground forces fighting in Ukraine”, the Attorney General’s Office told Reuters.
“We document and collect every possible aspect of such engagement Aggression is a part of the core activities of crime”, the office added in a statement.Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, South Korea and several Western governments have said Russian-trained North Korean troops have been sent to the Russian border region of Kursk, where Ukrainian forces launched a major incursion in August.
To the Ukrainian Prosecutor General, “Aspects of the alleged offense include providing arms to the Russian Federation, arranging training for Russian military personnel, and direct participation of North Korean forces in hostilities.s”.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia plans to send North Korean troops to the battlefield from October 27-28.citing intelligence reports.
“According to our intelligence services, on October 27 and 28, Russia will station the first North Korean troops in combat zones,” he wrote in a telegram after receiving reports from his senior commander.A total of about 12,000 North Korean soldiers, including 500 officers and three generals, are already in Russia and training at five military bases, according to Ukrainian intelligence.
Zelensky called on allies to respond to this “escalation” by applying “firm pressure” on Moscow and Pyongyang.
Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Braegelmans revealed this Friday that secret services have confirmed that Russia is sending troops to North Korea to train Pyongyang’s troops.
According to Ruben Bregelmans, Dutch intelligence has confirmed that at least 1,500 North Korean soldiers will be deployed in the short term to help Russia’s military operations against Ukraine.
“We expect that the troops will be stationed mainly in Kursk and will be made up mainly of special units of the North Korean army,” Braekelmans said, adding that “the first deployment will be a way to test Russian troops and gauge the international reaction.”
Who are Pyongyang’s military partners?
North Korea has been accused of sending thousands of troops to Russia that could take part in the war in Ukraine, in a move that would be the isolated country’s first large-scale military deployment since the Vietnam War.
Between 1966 and 1972, North Korea sent over a thousand soldiers to North Vietnam.Reuters reports, including pilots who flew hundreds of MiG-17s in combat, according to a 2017 book published by the South Korean Defense Ministry’s Military History Institute.
Between 1967 and 1969, the North’s air force shot down at least 26 American planes and lost 14 of its own personnel, a retired Vietnamese air force officer told the newspaper. People’s Police Newspaper of the country.
One Another team of North Korean psychological warfare specialists was also sent to support North Vietnamese propaganda and kidnapping operations. It targeted South Korean troops in South Vietnam, while dozens of Vietnamese guerrillas trained in North Korea.
But relations have cooled since Vietnam embraced the West, began political and economic reforms in the late 1980s, and established diplomatic ties with South Korea in 1992.
During the Yom Kippur War in 1973, the North Korea sent to Egypt A group of about 1,500 military advisers and about 40 air force personnel followed the military assistance agreement between its late leader Kim Il Sung and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, revealed Niu Chang, a professor at Shanghai University of International Studies.
The North Korea promoted military exchanges with Libya During Muammar Gaddafi’s rule, he concluded a 10-year alliance agreement in 1982 that would provide military assistance if one of the two countries was attacked or threatened by a third country.
A CIA cable released in 1982 said Pyongyang was trying to turn Libya into an “external depot” for its armed forces, citing earlier reports of North Korean pilots and MiG-23 training in the country, preparing the stage for acquiring nuclear weapons.
The Syria is a long time friend of North KoreaMissiles and chemical weapons work together. Pyongyang also built a plutonium reactor in the country, which was destroyed by an Israeli attack in 2007.
In 2013, Israeli media reported that several North Korean helicopter pilots and artillery officers were operating in Syria, although Pyongyang’s state news agency denied military assistance.
In 2016, Russian state news agency TASS reported that two North Korean military units were fighting on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war.
Both the UN subject to restrictions North Korea and Iran They are suspected of collaborating on nuclear and ballistic missile programs and exchanging technical know-how and components.
In 2015, an exiled Iranian dissident group exposed the country’s Natanz nuclear power plant in 2002, saying a team of seven North Korean nuclear and missile experts visited a military base near Tehran.
In 2021, UN monitors resumed cooperation on developing long-range missiles and replacing critical components.
North Korea has been accused of supplying weapons to Iranian proxies, including Hamas, whose militants were seen using its grenades in an October 2023 attack on Israel, a claim denied by Pyongyang.
African countries
North Korea has long-standing ties to authoritarian regimes in Zimbabwe, Uganda and other African countries that date back to the Cold War era, involving arms sales and military training.
In 2011, a South Korean lawmaker said it held more than 100 rounds of arms sales negotiations between 1999 and 2008 with countries including Angola, Congo, Libya, Tanzania and Uganda.
According to the National Security Strategy Corporation, South Korea’s national intelligence agency, the transactions were aimed at raising dollars to buy new weapons and components from Russia by selling cheap, old conventional weapons in Africa.
But with Botswana cutting diplomatic ties in 2015 and Uganda and Ethiopia suspending security exchanges in 2016, the country has faced tough UN pressure.
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