North Korea vows to stand alongside Russia until it defeats Ukraine

The two countries share an ‘invincible military comradeship’, says Pyongyang’s foreign minister in Moscow

North Korea will stand with Russia until it achieves victory in its “holy war” against Ukraine, Pyongyang’s foreign minister has said.
Choe Son-hui made the comments at talks with Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, in Moscow as North Korean soldiers prepared to enter battle against Ukraine.
“Until the day of victory, we will firmly stand alongside our Russian comrades,” she said.
Ms Choe praised a “new level of relations of invincible military comradeship” between Pyongyang and Moscow and said that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un had ordered his officials to provide “powerful” assistance to the Kremlin.
“We have no doubt that under the wise leadership of Russian president Vladimir Putin, the Russian army and people will achieve a great victory in their sacred struggle,” she said.
Speaking through a translator, Kim’s top envoy also said that ties between North Korea and Russia needed to deepen because the situation on the Korean peninsula could become “explosive” at any moment.
Analysts have said that in exchange for weapons, Russia will be giving North Korea technological support – possibly for Kim’s nuclear weapons programme.
Mr Lavrov responded to Ms Choe by praising the “very close” military ties between the two countries which he said would help solve “important tasks for the security of our and your citizens”.
Neither of the foreign ministers directly mentioned the deployment of thousands of North Korean soldiers in Russia ahead of their expected arrival on the frontline.
North Korea has become a key ally for Russia since the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, supplying artillery shells and missiles.
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state and Washington’s top diplomat, said he believed Pyongyang may have already stationed as many as 8,000 troops in Kursk, which Ukraine invaded in August.
They could be deployed on the front line “within days”, officials believe, once Russia’s upper house of parliament rubber-stamps a “mutual military assistance” pact agreed by Putin and Kim.
On Thursday evening, Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, warned that it was now only a matter of days before up to 13,000 North Korean soldiers entered the war and pleaded to the West for a strong response.
“Putin is checking the reaction of the West, checking the reaction of Nato countries, the reaction of South Korea,” he said of the North Korean troop deployment.
The assessment that Pyongyang would soon enter the war was backed up by US officials who have reportedly turned to China to try to use its influence to restrain Kim.
Western analysts have said that the quality of North Korean soldiers sent to fight for Russia will be poor and that communication with Russian units will be complicated.
The North Korean soldiers are likely to be conscripts with no Russian language skills and no combat experience, used by the Kremlin as cannon fodder for its mass infantry tactics.