Washington [US], December 19: North Korea praised its effective alliance with Russia and condemned recent statements by the US and its allies about Pyongyang-Moscow relations.
North Korean media on December 19 published a statement by a Foreign Ministry spokesman praising the country's military alliance with Russia as proving very effective in deterring the US and its "vassal forces."
According to Reuters, the statement did not mention the accusations of the US and Ukraine that North Korean soldiers were killed while fighting with Russia against Ukraine in Kursk province (Russia).
Instead, the spokesman condemned the United States, nine other countries and the European Union (EU) for issuing a joint statement that "distorted and slandered the nature of normal cooperation" between North Korea and Russia.
Pyongyang accused Washington and its allies of prolonging the war in Ukraine and destabilizing the security situation in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Pyongyang in June and signed a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement, including a mutual defense provision between the two countries.
US and South Korean officials say more than 10,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to Russia, and Pyongyang has also shipped more than 10,000 containers of artillery shells, anti-tank rockets, howitzers and rocket systems to Moscow. Neither North Korea nor Russia has confirmed the reports.
US warns Russia about North Korea
The US has not commented on North Korea's new statement. However, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield warned on December 18 about the possibility of Russia accepting North Korea as a nuclear state, according to Reuters.
"Alarmingly, we assess that Russia may be on the verge of accepting North Korea's nuclear weapons program , reversing Moscow's decades-long commitment to denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. We believe that Moscow will become more reluctant not only to criticize Pyongyang's nuclear weapons development, but also more resistant to passing sanctions or resolutions condemning North Korea's destabilizing behavior," Ms. Thomas-Greenfield said at a UN Security Council meeting.
In response, Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia defended cooperation with North Korea as complying with international law, not against third countries, and not posing a threat to the region and the world.
In September, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia considered North Korea's denuclearization a closed issue and that Moscow understood Pyongyang's rationale for relying on nuclear weapons as the basis of its defense.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
