North Korean troops in Russia, ICBM launch, rattle US and NATO

Pyongyang/Washington: North Korea (The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – DPRK) today launched an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) coinciding with the nation’s announcement that its Constitution newly defined South Korea as a hostile nation. Yesterday South Korea and the United States forces conducted a joint military exercise following reports that North Korea had sent its 8,000 soldiers to Russia.

US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken claimed that after receiving training, the North Korean soldiers were deployed to the Kursk region in Russia’s western front and could join Russian troops to fight against Ukraine “in the coming days.” Blinken said, “We’ve not yet seen these troops deploy into combat against Ukrainian forces, but we would expect that to happen in the coming days.”

The USA’s NATO Allies were also concerned about the development, and Washington was consulting with them in terms of what their response would look like at a time when the DPRK-Russia friendly and cooperative relations were developing into a high stage of comprehensive strategic partnership and already a Russian delegation was in Pyongyang to attend the DPRK-Russia IT products exhibition-2024.

Blinken, Japanese Foreign Minister Iwaya Takeshi, and South Korea Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul held a call today and stated that together with the international community, they will continue to work closely towards the goal of complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and block North Korea’s “illicit” revenue generation funding its unlawful Weapons of Mass Destruction and ballistic missile programmes. They claimed North Korea uses the additional revenue gained through “illicit” revenue generation to advance its ballistic missile programme and continues to transfer ballistic missiles and other arms to Russia in violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions.

The United States reiterated that its commitments to the defence of South Korea and Japan were “ironclad and backed by the full range of capabilities, including nuclear”.

The US, South Korea, and Japan condemned “in the strongest terms” the deepening military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow, including “continued unlawful arms transfers”, as well as the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia.

Earlier in the day, to a question on whether Ukraine be allowed to use weapons provided by the United States and NATO Allies if the North Korean troops would end up on the fronts like in Kursk, the US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller had said, “I’m not going to get into a hypothetical”.

A concerned Washington has engaged directly with officials of the Government of China to make clear its concerns about this deepening military relationship between Russia and North Korea. “We think this ought to be a source of concern for China as well as other countries in the region,” the US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said in Washington.

Blinken, Takeshi, and Tae-yul, while condemning the launch of the ICBM by Pyongyang, claimed the ICBM launch was in “flagrant” violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions, and urged North Korea to “immediately cease its series of provocative and destabilizing actions that threaten peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and beyond”. They reiterated that North Korea should return to dialogue immediately as a lasting peace could be achieved on the Korean Peninsula “only” through dialogue.

In addition, the three countries will continue to strengthen our trilateral security cooperation to deter and respond to North Korea’s advancing nuclear and ballistic missile threats more effectively.

– global bihari bureau