US, Japan and South Korea concerned about Russia and North Korea’s “deepening military cooperation”

MADRID 26 Oct. () –

The authorities of the United States, Japan and South Korea have expressed this Friday their “deep concern” at the increasingly closer relations between Russia and North Korea, calling for an end to these actions amid information that indicates that South Korea North would be preparing troops to intervene in the war in Ukraine on the side of the Russian Army.

The American, Japanese and South Korean National Security Advisors, Jake Sullivan, Akiba Takeo and Shin Wonsik respectively, have drawn attention to the deployment of North Korean troops in Russia, “possibly for use on the battlefield against Ukraine.”

“This deployment is the latest in a series of worrying indicators of deepening military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, including arms and ballistic missile transfers in direct violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions,” they said. expressed after a trilateral meeting in Washington.

The three advisors have called on the Russian and North Korean governments to demand an end to “these actions that only serve to expand the security implications of Russia’s brutal and illegal war beyond Europe and into the Indo-Pacific.”

Likewise, they have reiterated their “firm commitment (…) to help Ukraine defend itself”, committing to “coordinate support for (its) energy infrastructure, (its) recovery and (its) reconstruction”, as well as making Russia “held accountable for its actions.”

Sullivan, Akiba and Shin have also concurred in condemning, in any context, “illicit arms transfers, malicious cyber activities and the sending of workers abroad to finance their illegal weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs”, promising ” continue with trilateral efforts to combat them.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned this Friday that Russia will send “the first North Korean soldiers to combat zones on October 27 and 28” to participate in the war in Ukraine on behalf of the Russian side, which he defined as a “clear escalation” in the conflict.

Meanwhile, his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, has defended that the military collaboration agreement with North Korea is part of a “sovereign decision” and has emphasized that it is up to Moscow and Pyongyang to decide when to apply the clauses of the mutual military assistance agreement. signed by both in June.

These statements come after international concern has grown in recent days over an alleged deployment of North Korean troops that the Russian president avoided denying on Thursday in a public appearance.