SEOUL: North Korea said on Friday any move to send its troops to assist Russia in its war in Ukraine would be in line with international law, although it stopped short of confirming that such a deployment had taken place.
Ukraine, the United States and other Western allies say they have evidence that Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to Russia for possible deployment against Ukraine.
Previously both Pyongyang and the Kremlin had dismissed such reports as baseless
rumors.
But when asked about the reports on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin
stopped short of denying them.
Ukraine says North Korean participation in the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in Feb. 2022, could amount to the crime of aggression under international law.
In a statement reported by North Korea’s KCNA news agency, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Jong Gyu said the foreign ministry was not directly involved in matters handled by the defense ministry and would not comment directly on any deployment.
However, he added: “If there is such a thing that the world media is talking about, I think it will be an act conforming with the regulations of international law.”
North Korea and Russia have developed closer relations since the war began, including signing a new mutual defense pact. Ukraine and Western countries have previously accused North Korea of supplying weapons to Russia, which Pyongyang and Moscow have denied.
Putin said on Thursday it was up to Moscow and Pyongyang how to conduct their mutual defense agreement, and accused the West of escalating the Ukraine war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that Russia plans to deploy North Korean troops to the battlefield starting Oct. 27-28, citing intelligence reports.
Ukrainian military intelligence said on Thursday that around 12,000 North Korean troops, including 500 officers and three generals, were already in Russia, and training was taking place on five military bases.
The United States has said it has seen evidence of North Korean troops in Russia, and South Korean lawmakers said about 3,000 soldiers had been sent, with more to follow.
North Korea says any deployment to aid Russia would be lawful
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North Korea says any deployment to aid Russia would be lawful
- Ukraine, the United States and other Western allies say they have evidence that Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to Russia for possible deployment against Ukraine
- Previously both Pyongyang and the Kremlin had dismissed such reports as baseless rumors
UN chief calls on Israel to reverse NGOs ban in Gaza
- In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out
- Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they had refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials
UNITED NATIONS, United States: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Friday for Israel to end a ban on humanitarian agencies that provided aid in Gaza, saying he was “deeply concerned” at the development.
Guterres “calls for this measure to be reversed, stressing that international non-governmental organizations are indispensable to life-saving humanitarian work and that the suspension risks undermining the fragile progress made during the ceasefire,” his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
“This recent action will further exacerbate the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians,” he added.
Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they had refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials.
The ban includes Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has 1,200 staff members in the Palestinian territories — the majority of whom are in Gaza.
NGOs included in the ban have been ordered to cease their operations by March 1.
Several NGOS have said the requirements contravene international humanitarian law or endanger their independence.
Israel says the new regulation aims to prevent bodies it accuses of supporting terrorism from operating in the Palestinian territories.
On Thursday, 18 Israel-based left-wing NGOs denounced the decision to ban their international peers, saying “the new registration framework violates core humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality.”
A fragile ceasefire has been in place since October, following a deadly war waged by Israel in response to Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out.
Nearly 80 percent of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged by the war, according to UN data, leaving infrastructure decimated.
About 1.5 million of Gaza’s more than two million residents have lost their homes, said Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza.
