North Korea is sending its citizens to help Russia\u2019s military fight Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky has said, increasing concerns about the alliance between Moscow and the secretive state. <\/p>\n
In his daily video message on Sunday, the Ukrainian president said: \u201cWe see an increasing alliance between Russia and regimes like North Korea. It is no longer just about transferring weapons. It is actually about transferring people from North Korea to the occupying military forces.\u201d <\/p>\n
Zelensky\u2019s allegation comes amid an increasingly friendly relationship between Moscow and Pyongyang. Russian President Vladimir Putin visited North Korea in June \u2013 the first visit of its kind for more than two decades \u2013 and Western observers have wondered how heavily North Korea has assisted Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. <\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, in such circumstances, our relations with our partners need to be developed. The frontline needs more support,\u201d Zelensky added, reiterating his plea for Western nations to allow Kyiv to use long-range missiles in Russian territory. <\/p>\n
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday dismissed allegations that North Korean personnel had been sent to help Russia as \u201canother hoax.\u201d <\/p>\n
But South Korea\u2019s National Intelligence Service said last week it is monitoring developments and believes the claim could be accurate. <\/p>\n
Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun said it is \u201chighly likely that the reported casualties of North Korean officers and soldiers in Ukraine are true, given various circumstances,\u201d speaking at the annual parliamentary audit of the defense sector on Tuesday. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe that the possibility of further deployment of regular troops is very high, as Russia and North Korea have entered a mutual agreement that is almost equivalent to a military alliance. We will also be well-prepared for this possibility,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
Multiple governments have accused Pyongyang of supplying arms to Moscow for its grinding war in Ukraine, a charge both countries have denied, despite significant evidence of such transfers. <\/p>\n
The two nations, both pariahs in the West, have forged increasingly warm ties since Russia\u2019s invasion. <\/p>\n
During Putin\u2019s visit to the North Korean capital in June, the two countries pledged to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance in the event the other is attacked, part of a landmark defense pact agreed by the autocratic nations. <\/p>\n
Putin said during that trip that the two countries were ramping up ties to a \u201cnew level.\u201d <\/p>\n
In remarks ahead of talks between the two, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un voiced his \u201cfull support and solidarity with the struggles of the Russian government, military and the people,\u201d pointing specifically to Moscow\u2019s war in Ukraine \u201cto protect its own sovereignty, safety and territorial stability.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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North Korea is sending its citizens to help Russia\u2019s military fight Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky has said, increasing concerns about the alliance between Moscow and the secretive state. In his daily video message on Sunday, the Ukrainian president said: \u201cWe see an increasing alliance between Russia and regimes like North Korea. It is no longer just <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8717,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8716","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}