AM/ST
28. 10. 2024, 16.54
Updated: 28 October 2024, 17.03
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte believes that the presence of North Korean troops in Russia’s Kursk region, where clashes are taking place between the Ukrainian and Russian armies, shows the growing desperation of President Vladimir Putin. According to the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the help of the North Korean forces to Russia represents a threat to global peace.
“I can confirm today that North Korean forces have been sent to Russia and are already stationed in the Kursk region,” Rutte announced after the meeting of ambassadors of NATO members with representatives of South Korea and other partner countries from the Indo-Pacific region in Brussels.
“Deployment of North Korean forces in Kursk shows that Putin is increasingly desperate,” said the general secretary of the alliance. According to him, more than 600,000 Russian soldiers have already been killed or wounded in the Russian aggression against Ukraine. He added that the Russian president can no longer carry out aggression without foreign support.
The participation of troops from North Korea also means a significant strengthening of Pyongyang’s involvement in Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and a new violation of the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, Rutte emphasized. He called on Moscow and Pyongyang, which, according to him, had already supplied Russia with several million pieces of ammunition and ballistic missiles, to immediately end their activities.
“Deepening military cooperation between Russia and North Korea poses a security threat to the Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic areas. In addition, it undermines peace on the Korean Peninsula and fuels Russia’s war against Ukraine,” said the general secretary of the alliance.
He later announced the same on the X social network after a telephone conversation with the South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeolomwho thanked him for today’s report of the South Korean delegation on the presence of the North Korean army in Russia to the members of the alliance.
The President of the European Commission also spoke with Yoon on the phone today Ursula von der Leyenwhich characterized the participation of North Korean soldiers in the Russian aggression against Ukraine as a serious aggravation of this war and a threat to global peace. She assured him that the EU’s response would focus on cooperation with South Korea and other like-minded partners, the commission said.
Rutte also announced a telephone conversation with the Ukrainian defense minister for today Rustemom Umerovom. In a statement to the media at noon after the meeting with representatives of South Korea, he assured Ukraine of further support from the allies.
Ukrainian and South Korean authorities have been warning since the middle of the month that North Korea has sent thousands of soldiers to Russia to train to fight in the war against Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Friday that Moscow will call up North Korean soldiers to the front in the fight against Ukraine on Sunday or today.
Source: svet24.si
