North Korea’s top diplomat is in Moscow as Pyongyang has sent troops to help its war against Ukraine

Russia’s top diplomat hosted his speech on Friday North Korean counterpart for talks amid reports that Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to Russia support his army in the war in Ukraine.

Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui’s visit to Moscow and her meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov followed the Pentagon’s statement that North Korea about 10,000 troops to Russia to fight Ukraine within “the next few weeks.”

Western leaders have the North Korean troop deployment as significant escalation that could also disrupt relations in the Indo-Pacific region.

Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang have specified the agenda for Choe’s talks in Moscow, but at a closed-door hearing in South Korea’s parliament, South Korea’s spy agency said Choe may be involved in high-level discussions about sending extra troops to Russia and negotiating what the North would get in return.

South Korean and Western officials have expressed concern that Russia could offer technology that could increase the threat from North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile program.

During his meeting with Choe in Moscow on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov praised ties between Moscow and Pyongyang, saying they “have reached an unprecedented high level in recent years,” and suggested the implementation of the strategic partnership agreement signed by the two countries. earlier this year.

“We will hold discussions on a range of issues related to politics and foreign policy, as well as matters requiring a joint response between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation,” Choe said, using the North’s formal name called.

She reiterated Pyongyang’s support “for the just struggle of the Russian army and people to defend their country’s sovereign rights and security interests in Ukraine.”

Moscow and Pyongyang have responded vaguely to South Korean and Western claims about the deployment of North Korean troops in Russia, stressing that their military cooperation is in accordance with international law, without directly addressing the presence of North Korean forces in Russia to give in.

The United States and its allies have also accused North Korea of ​​supplying millions of artillery shells and other equipment to Russia to fuel its military push in Ukraine.

Russia, along with China, has blocked US-led efforts in the Security Council to tighten sanctions on North Korea over its recent missile tests, which intensified after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. vetoed a UN resolution to expand the mandate of observers in March, a move that effectively abolished U.N. expert oversight of Security Council sanctions on North Korea.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol raised the possibility last month Supplying Ukraine with weapons while saying Seoul is preparing countermeasures that could be rolled out in phases depending on the level of military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.

South Korea, a growing arms exporter, has provided humanitarian aid and other non-lethal support to Ukraine and joined U.S.-led economic sanctions on Moscow. So far, the country has resisted calls from Kiev and NATO to supply Ukraine directly with weapons, citing a long-standing policy of not supplying weapons to countries in active conflict.

– Russia launched three aviation missiles and 48 drones of various types, including Shaheds, at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said. One missile and 31 drones were intercepted, 14 drones were jammed, three drones flew into the territory of Belarus, the air force said in a report on Friday morning. Several civilian facilities, as well as apartment buildings and private houses in the Poltava, Cherkasy, Kiev and Odesa regions were damaged by drone debris.

– The Russian military said Friday it has intercepted and destroyed a total of 83 Ukrainian drones over four Russian regions near the border with Ukraine and the annexed Crimean peninsula. In the Bryansk region, a drone hit a residential block, local authorities said. No casualties have been reported. In the Stavropol region, a drone struck an oil depot, according to local officials. According to unconfirmed media reports, the oil depot caught fire.