Seoul, Oct 28 (EFE).- North Korea on Saturday accused South Korea, Japan and the United States of politicizing Pyongyang’s close ties with Russia and of “groundless criticism and defamation” in a recent trilateral statement condemning the North’s alleged shipments of weapons to Moscow.
The statement, published on Thursday from Seoul, said that “such weapons deliveries, several of which we now confirm have been completed, will significantly increase the human toll of Russia’s war of aggression,” and conveyed unanimous condemnation of all weapons and munitions transfers between the two countries.
North Korean state news agency KCNA on Saturday carried a response from Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui, who called the Seoul statement a “politicized document that seriously distorted the friendly and cooperative relations between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation and is opposed to the universal principles of international law.”
Referring to the United Nations Charter, Choe said that “any nation or group of nations has no right to interfere in the issues belonging to the national sovereignty of states or in internal and external affairs of other countries,” and accused the three powers of “groundless criticism and defamation.”
“It has become clearer that they have the vital geopolitical interests in illegalizing the [North Korea]-Russia relations, in view of the present international political situation and the crises the US, Japan and [South Korea] are facing at home and abroad,” the foreign minister said.
Choe asked why reciprocal cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow poses “a threat” to international peace and security, but why the trilateral alliance does not, given the patent “US hegemony” among the group.
The North Korean foreign minister did not refer in more detail to the accusations of the alleged transfer of North Korean weapons and munitions to Russia that triggered the trilateral statement.
The White House has said that North Korea has sent containers with military equipment and munitions to Russia by train and ship so that they can be used in the war in Ukraine, and that some of those exchanges have been captured in satellite images. EFE
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