The deployment of some 10,000 North Korean troops to Russia’s Kursk region poses no major military threat to Ukrainian forces there but marks a “dangerous development” as Pyongyang is using its new security alliance with Moscow to gain access to critical new technologies and modern warfare tactics, Kyiv’s envoy to Japan has warned.
Speaking in Tokyo on Tuesday 1,000 days after Moscow’s invasion of his country, Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Korsunsky said that while North Korea’s provision to Russia of military equipment and troops is certainly worrisome, what’s “really a serious problem” is what Moscow is giving Pyongyang in return — a development, he said, that could also have direct security implications for East Asia.
“We have quite credible information that it’s not just rice or money but it’s about military technologies,” particularly those that enable Pyongyang to move forward with their missile program, the diplomat said, claiming that North Korea’s Oct. 31 launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile — which has the longest flight time yet – was “a direct result of this kind of cooperation.”