WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia asks at UN: If West aids Ukraine, why can't North Korea help us?

Russia's envoy to the United Nations on Wednesday questioned why its allies like North Korea could not help Moscow in its war against Ukraine given Western countries claim to the right to help Kyiv.

Vassily Nebenzia faced a blunt argument at a Security Council meeting from the United States, Britain, South Korea, Ukraine and others, who all accused Russia of violating U.N. resolutions and the founding U.N. Charter with the deployment of troops from North Korea (DPRK) to help Moscow.

"Supporting an act of aggression, which completely violates the principles of the U.N. Charter, is illegal," South Korea's U.N. Ambassador Joonkook Hwang said. "Any activities that are entailed with the DPRK's dispatch of troops to Russia are clear violations of multiple U.N. Security Council Resolutions."

Some 10,000 North Korean troops were already in eastern Russia and it appeared likely that they would be used to support combat operations in Russia's Kursk region, near the border with Ukraine, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday.

Nebenzia said Russia's military interaction with North Korea does not violate international law. Russia has not denied the involvement of North Korean troops in the war, which it has been waging in Ukraine since February 2022.

"Even if everything that's being said about the cooperation between Russia and North Korea by our Western colleagues is true, why is it that the United States and allies are trying to impose on everyone the flawed logic that they have the right to help the Zelenskiy regime ... and Russian allies have no right to do a similar thing," Nebenzia said.

Ukraine's U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya responded: "None of the countries that provide assistance to Ukraine is under Security Council sanctions."

"Receiving assistance from the fully-sanctioned North Korea is a brazen violation of the U.N. Charter," he added. "Sending the DPRK troops to support Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine is a flagrant violation of international law."

North Korea has been under U.N. Security Council sanctions since 2006 and the measures have been steadily strengthened over the years with the aim of halting Pyongyang's development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

North Korea has not acknowledged the deployment of troops to Russia, but said any such move would be compliance with international law.

"If Russia's sovereignty and security interests are exposed to and threatened by continued dangerous attempts of the United States and the West, and if it is judged that we should respond to them with something, we will make a necessary decision," North Korea's U.N. Ambassador Song Kim told the council.

"Pyongyang and Moscow maintain close contact with each other on mutual security and development of the situation," he said.

However, deputy U.S. Ambassador Robert Woodward warned North Korean leader Kim Jong Un: "Should DPRK's troops enter Ukraine in support of Russia, they will surely return in body bags. So I would advise Chairman Kim to think twice about engaging in such reckless and dangerous behavior."

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Kremlin reveals key condition for Ukraine peace talks

No negotiations with Ukraine can take place unless Kiev gives up its attempts to join NATO and its troops withdraw from Russian territory, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary was commenting on speculation by the British outlet Financial Times about 'secret' peace between Russia and Ukraine talks, branding the story fake news.

Citing anonymous sources, the FT has claimed that Moscow and Kiev are “in preliminary discussions” to resume peace talks. According to the outlet, Ukraine is interested in restarting Qatar-mediated negotiations “that came close to an agreement in August before being derailed by Ukraine’s invasion of Kursk.”

“The basic conditions [for talks] were in the president’s peace initiative,” Peskov told reporters on Wednesday, referring to terms Putin outlined earlier this year, including the removal of all Ukrainian troops from Russian territory, Peskov said, referring to the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as the full administrative boundaries of Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions.

The outlet also claimed that the Ukrainian and Russian intelligence services have reached a mutual understanding to stop targeting each other’s energy infrastructure, calling it “the most significant de-escalation” of the conflict to date.

Peskov responded by saying that “nowadays there are a lot of bogus stories that have nothing to do with reality,” adding that “even the most respectable publications do not shy away from planting this misleading information.”

Russia received a Turkish request to discuss energy infrastructure strikes last month, according to former Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, who now serves as the secretary of the Security Council. According to Shoigu, Russia was willing to consider a potential deal, but the Ukrainian side rejected it.

Reuters/RT