South Korea calls on Russia’s ambassador to protest the sending of troops by North Korea

The South Korean foreign ministry called the Russian ambassador to Seoul on Monday to voice its concerns about what it called the sending of North Korean troops to Russia to be used in Ukraine.

When asked directly if North Korean troops were going to fight in Ukraine, the Kremlin wouldn’t say. However, Dmitry Peskov, a spokeswoman for the Russian government, said that Moscow’s cooperation with Pyongyang wasn’t aimed at other countries.

A statement from the ministry said that South Korea’s first vice foreign minister, Kim Hong-kyun, called in Russian ambassador Georgy Zinoviev and asked him to get North Korean forces out of Russia right away.

South Korea has said that North Korea may have sent some soldiers to help Russia fight Ukraine, but the Kremlin has denied these claims in the past.

Kim said that North Korean troops fighting in Ukraine was against U.N. decisions and the U.N. charter, and it was a major threat to South Korea’s safety and the safety of other countries as well.

Kim was reported by the ministry as saying, “We strongly condemn North Korea’s illegal military cooperation, including its sending troops to Russia.”

“We will respond jointly with the international community by mobilizing all available means against acts that threaten our core security interests.”

A Facebook post from the Russian mission said that Zinoviev told Kim that working together between Moscow and Pyongyang was legal and would not hurt South Korea’s safety.

Last week, South Korea’s spy agency said that North Korea had sent 1,500 special forces troops to Russia’s Far East to train and get used to life at Russian military camps. The spy agency said that the troops were likely to be sent to fight in the war in Ukraine.

On Sunday, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine, said that Pyongyang was planning to send 10,000 men to Russia and asked other countries to take strong action.

“THE DANGEROUS DEVELOPMENT”

The US said on Friday that it could not confirm reports that North Korean troops were fighting. However, it did say that if the reports were true, it would be a “dangerous development” in Russia’s war against Ukraine.

On Monday, South Korea’s defense ministry said that Seoul had talked to Washington before the spy agency’s announcement. The ministry spoke out against what it called the North’s illegal involvement in Ukraine and asked for a quick end to the situation.

Following a phone call with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday, Mark Rutte, the head of NATO, said on the social media site X that if North Korea sent troops to Ukraine to fight for Russia, it would make the situation much worse.

Rutte suggested that Seoul send a government team to NATO to share more information about North Korea’s moves. Yoon’s office said that he agreed with this idea.

A spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, Lin Jian, said that Beijing hoped that everyone would work to calm down the situation.

Russia and North Korea have both denied sending arms to each other, but they have promised to strengthen their military ties and signed a treaty to do so at a meeting in June.