Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin does not deny that North Korean troops are in Russia. Meanwhile, according to the president, large parts of the Ukrainian armed forces are surrounded in the western Russian border region of Kursk. According to Ukrainian military intelligence, this would be the first North Korean troops trained in Russia.
“Russia has never doubted that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is serious about cooperating with Russia; we are working together with our North Korean friends,” Putin responded to questions from journalists in Kazan, Russia, on Thursday. “What we do is our business,” Putin said calmly at a press conference after the BRICS summit.
“About 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers were blocked in the Kursk region,” Putin said at the final press conference of the BRICS summit in the Volga city of Kazan. Although Kiev tries to restore access to these troops, the Russian army liquidates this group.
Russian troops are making progress in all sectors of the front in eastern Ukraine, Putin continued. The Ukrainian soldiers who counter-attacked into Russian territory would also have to leave the country. At the BRICS summit, he had already highlighted the military successes of the Russian army in the war against Ukraine that started in 2022 to the heads of state present there.
Strategic Partnership Treaty with North Korea
Putin responded evasively to questions about reports of thousands of North Korean soldiers on the Moscow side, but did not see this as a problem. Moscow has ratified a strategic partnership agreement with North Korea, Putin said in Kazan. There is a passage about mutual military assistance. “We have never doubted that North Korean leaders take our agreements seriously. What and how we will do within the framework of this article is our business,” Putin said.
Negotiations on the draft of the article are still necessary, he continued. It remains to be seen how this will develop. Putin was responding to a question from an American journalist who pointed to satellite images of North Korean troop deployments. “The recordings are serious business. If there are images, it means they reflect something,” Putin said. However, it did not become any clearer.
There is a threat of a ‘serious escalation’
Meanwhile, EU countries warned Pyongyang against direct involvement in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The involvement of North Korean troops would be a unilateral hostile act with serious consequences for peace and security in Europe and globally, according to a statement released by the EU’s foreign policy chief on behalf of the 27 countries. It would therefore constitute a serious violation of international law, including the most fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter.
For the appointed new head of the Munich Security Conference (MSC), Jens Stoltenberg, the use of North Korean forces in the war in Ukraine would be “a serious escalation”. “North Korea has already supplied Russia with enormous amounts of ammunition. “So we see how closely Russia and North Korea are linked,” the ex-NATO Secretary General said in an interview with “Münchner Merkur”.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
