MOSCOW: North Korea will stand by Russia until its “victory” in Ukraine, Pyongyang’s foreign minister said in Moscow amid growing fears the reclusive country will enter the Ukraine conflict. North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui made the statement after talks with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. SheContinue Reading
BEIJING: China on Friday (Nov 1) insisted that growing ties between Pyongyang and Moscow were not its concern, after the United States warned up to 8,000 North Korean troops have reached Russia’s border region trained and ready for combat with Ukraine. “North Korea and Russia are two independent sovereign states.Continue Reading
TOKYO: Japan and the European Union were set on Friday (Nov 1) to announce a new security partnership which local media said would include more joint military drills, senior-level dialogue and defence industry cooperation. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell will meet his Japanese counterpart Takeshi Iwaya, who told reporters thisContinue Reading
HONG KONG : China’s aircraft carriers Liaoning and Shandong carried out dual aircraft carrier formation exercises for the first time in the South China Sea, the PLA navy said, a move that sets China’s navy up for more diverse and complex missions. China is in disputes with several of itsContinue Reading
DIVERTING ATTENTION? North Korea’s missile launch “seems to have been carried out to divert attention from international criticism of its troop deployment”, Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP. Seoul has long accused the nuclear-armed North of sending weapons to help Moscow fightContinue Reading
Ukraine identified Colonel General Kim Yong Bok, a senior general with command of special forces troops, including the XI Corps, also known as the Storm Corps, which the South Korean intelligence service said has been dispatched to Russia. Michael Madden, a North Korea leadership expert with the US-based Stimson CenterContinue Reading
MOSCOW: North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui arrived in Russia on Tuesday (Oct 29) for an official visit after South Korea and the United States claimed Pyongyang had sent thousands of troops to train in Russia. Choe flew into the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok, TASS state newsContinue Reading
Tokyo: On Friday ( October 25 ), Japan stated that it was monitoring with” serious concern” indications that North Korean troops might be stationed in Russia before moving to Ukraine. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi stated that the Chinese government is “watching the implementation of warriors by North Korea toContinue Reading
As he addressed leaders of the BRICS group of emerging economies, including his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, on Wednesday ( October 23 ), China’s president Xi Jinping stated that there must be” no escalation of fighting” in Ukraine. The largest political conference held in Russia since Putin’s order to sendContinue Reading
South Korea summoned the Russian ambassador on Monday ( Oct 21 ) to criticise Pyongyang’s decision to send thousands of soldiers to support Moscow’s war in Ukraine, the foreign ministry said, calling for their immediate withdrawal. In Pyongyang’s primary for deployment overseas, about 1, 500 North Korean specific forces soldiersContinue Reading