North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui with her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow, 1 November 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE / RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY
North Korea will support Russia until it achieves “victory” in its war against Ukraine, North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui declared during an official visit to Moscow on Friday.
Speaking during bilateral talks with her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, Choe hailed “a new level of relations” between the two countries and spoke of “invincible military comradeship”, assuring Lavrov that Russia had Pyongyang’s full support in its “holy war” against Ukraine and that North Korea would stand by Russia until its “day of victory” against its neighbour.
“We have no doubt whatsoever that, under the wise leadership of the esteemed president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, the Russian army and people will undoubtedly achieve a great victory in their sacred struggle to defend the sovereign rights and security interests of their state”, Choe continued.
Lavrov, in turn, thanked Choe for North Korea’s “principled position” on the war in Ukraine, which he said was the result of “the West’s policy of NATO’s eastward expansion” and its encouragement of “an openly racist regime that seeks to eliminate everything Russian” in Ukraine.
Choe’s visit to Moscow came just a week after Russia’s State Duma ratified a military partnership pact signed by Putin and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un during Putin’s visit to Pyongyang in June.
During Friday’s talks, Choe and Lavrov discussed their “shared assessments of the current global situation” and reaffirmed their “firm commitment” to implementing the pact, which provides for “mutual assistance” if either country comes under attack, the Kremlin said.
On Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US expected to see some 8,000 North Korean troops currently deployed in Russia’s southwestern Kursk region to begin combat operations “in the coming days”.
Writing on social media on Friday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that indecisiveness on the part of Kyiv’s partners was preventing Ukraine from taking action against the North Korean forces.
“We know where these North Korean troops are gathering in Russia. We could act preemptively if we had the means — long-range capability. Yet, America, the UK and Germany watch”, Zelensky said.