SEOUL: North Korea accused the United States on Thursday of driving the Ukraine crisis toward a global nuclear disaster by supplying F-16 fighter jets to Kyiv’s forces, saying Washington had no right to criticize Pyongyang’s military cooperation with Russia.
North Korea has previously condemned Washington for supplying arms including cluster munitions to Ukraine and denied that it had provided artillery, rockets and missiles to Russia despite its support of Moscow over its war with Ukraine.
The United States has “no legal right or moral justification to criticize normal cooperation between sovereign states in the defense field,” the North’s defense minister Kang Sun Nam said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.
Pyongyang has sought to deepen relations with Russia and last month invited Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to events marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War.
“The United States is responsible for driving the Ukraine crisis to the brink of a global nuclear war by supplying F-16 fighter jets to the Zelensky puppet regime,” Kang said, referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“We once again send full support and solidarity to the Russian people’s fight of justice waged to defend its sovereign rights and achieve international justice and will increase by hundredfold the military friendship with Russia,” he said.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, calling it a “special military operation” to eliminate security threats arising from Kyiv’s deepening ties with the West. Kyiv and its Western supporters call Russia’s actions an unprovoked war of conquest.
The United States has approved sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine from Denmark and the Netherlands to help Kyiv in its counter-offensive against Russian forces.
North Korea: US driving Ukraine crisis toward nuclear disaster
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North Korea: US driving Ukraine crisis toward nuclear disaster
- Defense minister Kang Sun Nam: US has ‘no legal right or moral justification to criticize normal cooperation between sovereign states in the defense field’
North Korea and China to resume passenger train service after six-year gap
- China’s railway authority said in a notice that Beijing-Pyongyang trains will operate four times a week
- The resumption from March 12 will “further promote China-North Korea travel, trade and economic cooperation”
SEOUL/BEIJING: Tickets for the first passenger train in six years from Beijing to North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, were sold out ahead of its March 12 departure, an official ticketing office in Beijing said on Tuesday.
The resumption of the rail service, suspended since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, revives a critical transport link between the largely isolated North Korea and its primary economic ally.
Tickets for the journey — restricted to travelers holding business visas — were purchased by entrepreneurs, government officials and reporters, according to the Beijing ticketing office. Tickets were still available for the next service, scheduled for March 18.
NORTH KOREA STILL LARGELY CLOSED TO TOURISTS
China’s railway authority said in a notice that Beijing-Pyongyang trains will operate four times a week in both directions on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday while Dandong-Pyongyang trains will run daily.
The resumption from March 12 will “further promote China-North Korea travel, trade and economic cooperation, and people-to-people exchanges to enhance mutual well-being and friendship,” the notice said.
North Korea remains closed to most foreign tourism, with limited exceptions largely for Russian tour groups under restricted arrangements, according to travel agencies organizing trips to the country.
Before the pandemic, Chinese visitors made up the largest share of foreign tourists to North Korea, the agencies said. Tour organizers said on Monday that North Korea had canceled next month’s Pyongyang Marathon for unspecified reasons. The race is one of the few events that has been open to international participants in the isolated state.
