North Korea’s foreign minister is heading to Moscow amid Western claims that thousands of soldiers have been deployed to Russia to support its war with Ukraine.
North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui arrived in Russia’s far eastern city of Vladivostok on Tuesday and will visit Moscow on Wednesday, Russian state media Tass reported.
Before her flight to Russia, she met with Russian Ambassador to Pyongyang Alexander Matsegora, the Russian Embassy in North Korea said.
“On October 28, Ambassador Matsegora met at Pyongyang International Airport with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, who is leading a delegation on an official visit to Moscow,” the embassy said in a statement posted on its Telegram channel.
Tass said that the visit is part of a strategic dialogue agreement reached between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during Putin’s state visit to Pyongyang in June.
Choe arrived the day after NATO said that North Korean military units had been deployed to Russia to support its war with Ukraine.
North Korea
On Monday, the Pentagon estimated that 10,000 North Korean troops had been deployed to eastern Russia for training but declined to confirm that North Korean forces were already in Kursk.The United States said it would not impose new limits on Ukraine’s use of American weapons if North Korea joins Russia’s war.
NATO
On Monday, NATO said that North Korean troops had been sent to Russia to aid in its war against Ukraine.“Today, I can confirm that North Korean troops have been sent to Russia, and that North Korean military units have been deployed to the Kursk region,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said in a statement.
Rutte said that the move represents “a significant escalation” in North Korea’s involvement in the conflict and marks “a dangerous expansion of Russia’s war.”
“The deployment of North Korean troops represents: one, a significant escalation in [North Korea’s] ongoing involvement in Russia’s illegal war. Two, yet another breach of U.N. Security Council resolutions. And three, a dangerous expansion of Russia’s war,” he said.
Russia Teaching Military Terminology
High-ranking North Korean military officials and troops who have been deployed to Russia for the war in Ukraine might move to the frontline, South Korean lawmakers said on Monday after being briefed by the country’s spy agency, the National Intelligence Service.Lee Seong-kweun, a member of the South Korea’s parliamentary intelligence committee, said during a press briefing that, according to the intelligence agency’s assessment, the Russian military was attempting to teach military terminology to North Koreans.
“The Russian military was teaching the North Korean military some 100 Russian military terms such as ‘back to your position,’ ‘fire,’ and ‘launch’ ... but the North Korean military was struggling [to understand],” Lee said.
North Korea had also sent some 4,000 workers to Russia this year, according to the lawmakers attending the parliamentary intelligence committee hearing.
A North Korean representative to the United Nations in New York said on Oct. 22 that the U.S. and South Korean intelligence assertions about sending troops to Russia were “groundless rumors.”
