Sat 26 October 2024:

North Koreasaid on Friday that any dispatch of its soldiers to Russia would conform to international law, marking its first official response to recent claims by South Korea that Pyongyang sent approximately 3,000 troops to support Moscow. The White House has also backed these assertions.

In a vaguely-worded statement, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Jong Gyu addressed the allegations, saying, “If there is such a thing that the world media is talking about, I think it will be an act conforming with the regulations of international law.”

“There will evidently exist forces which want to describe it as illegal one, I think,” he said in response to a question by state-run Korea Central News Agency.

Kim called Seoul’s claims as “the rumor of the dispatch” of North Korean troops to Russia, which, he said, the world media was “building up public opinion.”

North Korean Foreign Ministry “does not directly engage in the things of the Ministry of National Defense, and does not feel the need to confirm it separately,” Kim added.

South Korea, in turn, has pledged to consider increasing arms supplies to Ukraine should military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow continue to deepen.

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Zelenskyy: North Korean troops are poised for deployment

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that Russia is expected to deploy North Korean soldiers to combat as early as Sunday.

In a statement posted to his official X social media account, Zelenskyy said the prediction is based on military intelligence he received in a Friday briefing from armed forces Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi.

Zelenskyy called the move a “clear escalation by Russia,” adding that “the world can clearly see Russia’s true intentions: to continue the war.”

Calling for a “principled and strong response” from global leaders, Zelenskyy said, “North Korea’s actual involvement in combat should not be met with indifference or uncertain commentary, but with tangible pressure on both Moscow and Pyongyang, to uphold the U.N. Charter and to hold them accountable for this escalation.”

Responding Thursday to a Ukraine intelligence report that the North Korean troops were in Russia’s Kursk region, Russian President Vladimir Putin said it was up to Moscow to decide how they might be deployed, including possibly sending them to fight on the front lines against Ukraine. He did not deny a U.S. claim that North Korea has dispatched some 3,000 troops to fight alongside Russian forces.

On Friday, North Korean state broadcaster KCNA carried a statement by Vice Foreign Minister Kim Jong Gyu, who would not comment directly on reports of the deployment, but said if there were such a thing, “I think it will be an act conforming with the regulations of international law.”

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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