SEOUL: Senior North Korean and Russian military officials discussed strengthening cooperation in their latest talks this week in Pyongyang, North Korean state media said Friday, as the two countries continue to align over Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The report came days after South Korea’s spy agency, in a closed-door briefing to lawmakers, said it had detected signs of recruitment and training activities in North Korea, possibly in preparation for additional troop deployments to Russia.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said North Korean officials, led by Pak Yong Il, vice director of the Korean People’s Army’s General Political Bureau, held talks Wednesday with a Russian delegation headed by Vice Defense Minister Viktor Goremykin.
KCNA said the two sides discussed expanding cooperation in line with the “deepened bilateral relations” developed under North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The report didn’t mention any specific agreements. KCNA also said Goremykin’s delegation separately met with North Korean Defense Minister No Kwang Chol on Thursday.
When asked whether North Korean and Russian officials may have discussed additional North Korean troop deployments to Russia, Chang Yoon-jeong, a spokesperson for South Korea’s Unification Ministry, said Seoul was closely monitoring the situation but wouldn’t make assumptions.
The North Korean-Russian meetings came days after US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth traveled to South Korea for annual security talks between the allies on Tuesday and praised South Korean plans to raise its military spending in the face of threats by nuclear-armed North Korea and other regional uncertainties.
According to South Korean assessments, North Korea has sent around 15,000 troops to Russia since last fall and also supplied large quantities of military equipment, including artillery and ballistic missiles to support Moscow’s war against Ukraine. Kim has also agreed to send thousands of military construction workers and deminers to Russia’s Kursk region.
In its briefing to lawmakers on Tuesday, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said it also believes around 5,000 North Korean military construction troops have been moving to Russia in phases since September for possible deployment in infrastructure restoration projects.
North Korean and Russian military officials discuss further cooperation in Pyongyang
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North Korean and Russian military officials discuss further cooperation in Pyongyang
- KCNA said the two sides discussed expanding cooperation in line with the “deepened bilateral relations” developed under North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin
Australia hits Afghan Taliban officials with sanctions, travel bans
- The Taliban has said it respects women’s rights, in line with its interpretation of Islamic law and local custom
- The measures were part of a new Australian government framework that enabled it to “directly impose its own sanctions and travel bans to increase pressure on the Taliban, targeting the oppression of the Afghan people,” Wong said
SYDNEY: Australia on Saturday imposed financial sanctions and travel bans on four officials in Afghanistan’s Taliban government over what it said was a deteriorating human rights situation in the country, especially for women and girls.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the officials were involved “in the oppression of women and girls and in undermining good governance or the rule of law” in the Taliban-run country.
Australia was one of several nations which in August 2021 pulled troops out of Afghanistan, after being part of a NATO-led international force that trained Afghan security forces and fought the Taliban for two decades after Western-backed forces ousted the Islamist militants from power.
The Taliban, since regaining power in Afghanistan, has been criticized for deeply restricting the rights and freedoms of women and girls through bans on education and work.
The Taliban has said it respects women’s rights, in line with its interpretation of Islamic law and local custom.
Wong said in a statement the sanctions targeted three Taliban ministers and the group’s chief justice, accusing them of restricting access for girls and women “to education, employment, freedom of movement and the ability to participate in public life.”
The measures were part of a new Australian government framework that enabled it to “directly impose its own sanctions and travel bans to increase pressure on the Taliban, targeting the oppression of the Afghan people,” Wong said.
Australia took in thousands of evacuees, mostly women and children, from Afghanistan after the Taliban retook power in the war-shattered South Asian country, where much of the population now relies on humanitarian aid to survive.
