NATO did not confirm Ukraine’s claim about North Korea-Russia
NATO’s secretary general said the alliance could not confirm reports of North Korean military personnel alongside Russian forces in the conflict in Ukraine.
According to RCO News Agency, Volodymyr Zelensky, the preside of Ukraine, claimed that North Korea sends weapons and soldiers to Moscow. Ukraine’s national News agency asked NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at a press conference to confirm such reports, to which he replied: “I cannot confirm these reports, but they are obviously worrying.”
Rutte coinued: “What we know is that North Korea is helping to strengthen Russia’s war efforts against Ukraine, and we strongly condemn, for example, the deepening of military cooperation between Russia and North Korea.” And he repeated that “at this stage We cannot confirm the reports you meioned.”
Zelensky told the Ukrainian parliame on Wednesday that the coury’s ielligence services had confirmed that North Korea was supplying Russia with both weapons and personnel. He also asked supporters of Kiev to impose new sanctions against Pyongyang.
The issue of North Korean soldiers apparely taking part in the conflict on behalf of Russia has already been raised by South Korea. Recely, the coury’s defense minister Kim Yong-hyun claimed in a parliame session that Pyongyang could send troops to fight Russia after signing a mutual security treaty with Russia. He believes such a deployme is “highly likely” and suggested some North Korean soldiers may have already been killed in the Ukraine conflict.
The Kremlin has denied the accusations, saying it “looks like another hoax.” Russian Preside Vladimir Putin has previously said that reports of North Korea sending volueers to fight against Ukraine are “absolute nonsense”. In June, Russia and North Korea signed the so-called Comprehensive Partnership Treaty. This docume, which was approved during Putin’s visit to Pyongyang, replaces a number of previous agreemes between the two couries. It also has a clause to provide mutual military assistance, but only if one of the parties is attacked.
On Monday, Putin formally asked the State Duma to ratify the treaty. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has insisted that the new agreeme reflects an “exclusive defensive position” and that only those who iend to invade Russia or North Korea can object to it.
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