By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Russia’s envoy to the United Nations on Wednesday questioned why its allies like North Korea couldn’t assist Moscow in its conflict towards Ukraine given Western nations declare the fitting to assist Kyiv.
Vassily Nebenzia confronted a blunt argument at a Safety Council assembly from the US, Britain, South Korea, Ukraine and others, who all accused Russia of violating U.N. resolutions and the founding U.N. Constitution with the deployment of troops from North Korea (DPRK) to assist Moscow.
“Supporting an act of aggression, which completely violates the principles of the U.N. Charter, is illegal,” South Korea’s U.N. Ambassador Joonkook Hwang stated. “Any activities that are entailed with the DPRK’s dispatch of troops to Russia are clear violations of multiple U.N. Security Council Resolutions.”
Some 10,000 North Korean troops have been already in jap Russia and it appeared possible that they might be used to help fight operations in Russia’s Kursk area, close to the border with Ukraine, U.S. Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin stated on Wednesday.
Nebenzia stated Russia’s army interplay with North Korea doesn’t violate worldwide legislation. Russia has not denied the involvement of North Korean troops within the conflict, which it has been waging in Ukraine since February 2022.
“Even if everything that’s being said about the cooperation between Russia and North Korea by our Western colleagues is true, why is it that the United States and allies are trying to impose on everyone the flawed logic that they have the right to help the Zelenskiy regime … and Russian allies have no right to do a similar thing,” Nebenzia stated.
Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya responded: “None of the countries that provide assistance to Ukraine is under Security Council sanctions.”
“Receiving assistance from the fully-sanctioned North Korea is a brazen violation of the U.N. Charter,” he added. “Sending the DPRK troops to support Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is a flagrant violation of international law.”
North Korea has been below U.N. Safety Council sanctions since 2006 and the measures have been steadily strengthened through the years with the goal of halting Pyongyang’s improvement of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
North Korea has not acknowledged the deployment of troops to Russia, however stated any such transfer can be compliance with worldwide legislation.
“If Russia’s sovereignty and security interests are exposed to and threatened by continued dangerous attempts of the United States and the West, and if it is judged that we should respond to them with something, we will make a necessary decision,” North Korea’s U.N. Ambassador Music Kim advised the council.
“Pyongyang and Moscow maintain close contact with each other on mutual security and development of the situation,” he stated.
Nonetheless, deputy U.S. Ambassador Robert Wooden warned North Korean chief Kim Jong Un: “Should DPRK’s troops enter Ukraine in support of Russia, they will surely return in body bags. So I would advise Chairman Kim to think twice about engaging in such reckless and dangerous behavior.”
(This story has been corrected to repair the title of the US envoy to Robert Wooden, not Woodward (NASDAQ:), in paragraph 13)
