The United States warned that North Korea is benefiting from its troops fighting alongside Russia against Ukraine, gaining experience that makes Pyongyang “more capable of waging war against its neighbours”.
Russia has forged closer diplomatic and military ties with North Korea since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
More than 12,000 North Korean troops are in Russia and last month began fighting against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, Deputy US Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Camille Shea told the United Nations Security Council.
“The DPRK is significantly benefiting from receiving Russian military equipment, technology and experience, rendering it more capable of waging war against its neighbours,” Shea told the 15-member council, which met over what Pyongyang said was a test of a new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile on Monday.
“In turn, the DPRK will likely be eager to leverage these improvements to promote weapons sales and military training contracts globally,” she said, using the acronym for North Korea’s formal name – the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
North Korea’s UN Ambassador Kim Song justified Monday’s missile test as part of a plan to enhance the country’s defence capabilities. He accused the United States of double standards.
“When the civilian death toll exceeded 45,000 in Gaza, United States embellished Israel’s nefarious mass killing atrocity as the right to self defence ... Meanwhile, it takes issue with legitimate exercise of the right to self-defence of the DPRK,” Kim told the Security Council.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia repeated Moscow’s longstanding accusation that the US, South Korea and Japan provoke North Korea with military exercises. He also rejected as “wholly unsubstantiated” a US allegation that Russia intends to share satellite and space technology with Pyongyang. — Reuters
