The United States has expressed concern that Russia could accept North Korea as a nuclear power, but Moscow and Pyongyang have defended their growing cooperation, with the latter calling it a “very effective alliance.”
At a session of the UN Security Council on Wednesday, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said: “It is worrying that Russia may be on the verge of accepting the North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, withdrawing from the Moscow agreement. decades-long commitment to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
“We believe that Moscow will become more reluctant not only to criticize Pyongyang’s development of nuclear weapons, but will also obstruct the adoption of sanctions or resolutions condemning North Korea’s destabilizing behavior,” he said. she declared.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced last September that his country considered the idea of “denuclearization” of North Korea to be a closed question, because it understands the logic of Pyongyang which relies on weapons nuclear weapons as the basis of its defense.
South Korea and Britain criticized Lavrov’s statements, saying they undermined the global non-proliferation regime.
James Kariuki, the UK’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, called Lavrov’s comment a “reckless departure from the agreed principle of a complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament process.”
As for Russia’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, he ignored North Korea’s nuclear program when speaking at the Security Council and defended growing cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang as a sovereign right of Russia.
The Russian ambassador said: “Russia’s cooperation with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is in accordance with international law and does not constitute a violation thereof…and…This measure is not directed against any third country. This poses no threat to regional countries or the international community, and there is no doubt that we will continue to develop such cooperation.”
For its part, North Korea said today that its military alliance with Russia “has proven very effective in deterring the United States and its affiliated forces.” He denounced a recent statement issued by Washington and its allies against the development of relations between Pyongyang and Moscow.
In a statement by a Foreign Ministry spokesperson, North Korea accused Washington and its allies of prolonging the war in Ukraine and destabilizing the security situation in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
He also attributes the destabilization of security in these regions to the “deceptive actions of the United States and the West in pursuit of their structurally destructive military policies oriented toward hegemony and adventure.”
U.S. and South Korean officials said more than 10,000 North Korean troops had been sent to Russia to help in its war against Ukraine, and that Pyongyang had also shipped more than 10,000 containers of shells. artillery and anti-tank missiles, in addition to automatic howitzers and rockets. launchers, but it has not officially admitted, it deploys troops or supplies weapons.
Russia has established closer diplomatic and military ties with North Korea since the war against Ukraine began in February 2022, and Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Pyongyang in June and signed a treaty of “comprehensive strategic partnership” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which included a mutual defense agreement.