President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has directly warned the United States and its allies that he is willing to provide weapons to North Korea if it continues to provide Kiev with sophisticated weapons to strike Russian territory. This raises the stakes for Western countries to support Ukraine.
Putin made the threat to reporters traveling with him before flying back to Russia on Thursday evening after a visit to Vietnam and North Korea, a day after he issued a similar, though decidedly less explicit, threat in Pyongyang. Restoring the Cold War-era mutual defense treaty and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed an agreement that requires both countries to provide each other with military assistance “to the best of our ability” in the event of an attack.
Putin’s threat to supply Pyongyang with weapons in violation of UN sanctions is a response to the decision by the United States and its allies in recent months to Allowing Ukraine to use weapons to attack internationally recognized Russian territory. The White House Made this decision last month.
“Those who supply these weapons think they are not at war with us. Well, as I said, we reserve the right to supply weapons to the rest of the world, including Pyongyang,” Putin said.
“Where will they go next?” Putin asked of the weapons, suggesting North Korea could sell Russian weapons to other criminals around the world who are hostile to the United States and its allies.
While Putin has not revealed what weapons he will provide North Korea, Kim Jong Un is seeking to improve its nuclear warheads, missiles, submarines and satellites — all areas in which Russia possesses some of the world’s most advanced and dangerous technology.
The Russian leader’s visit to Pyongyang underscores how the war in Ukraine has become a guiding principle of its foreign policy, outpacing other priorities the Kremlin has pursued for years. Washington and Seoul say North Korea has sent dozens of ballistic missiles and more than 11,000 containers of ammunition to Russia for use in Russia’s war on Ukraine, helping Putin overcome ammunition shortages. Both Russia and North Korea deny any arms exchange in violation of UN sanctions.
Russia has for years participated in U.N. efforts to limit Kim Jong Un’s nuclear and missile programs, passing Security Council resolution after Security Council resolution aimed at limiting the regime’s access to weapons, technology and resources. Those restrictions came after North Korea conducted six nuclear tests and developed an intercontinental ballistic missile program.
But now Mr. Putin Completely changed the routeHe advocated for an end to the sanctions he had approved because he wanted to raise the cost of U.S. support for Ukraine and Russia’s demands for large quantities of conventional munitions and weapons from North Korea.
“The West supplies weapons to Ukraine and says, ‘We don’t control anything here, it doesn’t matter what we do with these weapons,'” Putin said. “We can also say we deliver something to someone, and then we don’t control anything. Let them think about it.”
He revived a Cold War-era mutual defense commitment with North Korea and hinted at the possibility of arming Kim Jong Un’s regime. Causes concerns in South Korea and JapanThese bases house tens of thousands of U.S. troops.
South Korean officials said they would consider sending lethal aid to Ukraine in response, a decision Putin warned South Korea against in a speech before leaving the region on Thursday.
“That would be a big mistake,” Putin said. “I hope that does not happen. If it does, we will take appropriate measures, but that is unlikely to please the current South Korean leadership.”
He said the mutual defense pact should not worry South Korea because it requires Russia to intervene militarily only if North Korea is invaded, and that, as far as he knew, Seoul had no intention of carrying out such an attack.
The Russian leader has made criticism of the “strangulation of sanctions” central to his international messaging, comparing the restrictions on North Korea to the Nazi siege of Leningrad during World War II, which resulted in the death of his then-one-year-old brother.
In his comments on Thursday, Putin reiterated that the sanctions should be reassessed, particularly questioning those related to labor migration and saying North Korean families were unable to earn enough money to feed their children.
“Does this remind you of anything?” Putin asked, referring to World War II. “Is this humane?”
A few days before Putin visited Pyongyang, he published new demand He said he would agree to a ceasefire and talks if Kiev withdrew its troops from four eastern Ukrainian regions claimed by Moscow – which Russia never occupied in full during the war – and gave up its desire to join NATO.
Ukraine and its Western allies immediately rejected the proposal, calling it a call for surrender and more Ukrainian land rather than an honest offer for negotiations.
In the days since, the Russian leader and his top deputies have urged the West to take the proposal seriously and have sought to ratchet up the pressure, warning of worse conditions and more catastrophic battlefield scenarios ahead.
The Russian leader also claimed that Moscow is considering changing its nuclear policy in response to new equipment being developed in the West that lowers the threshold for using nuclear weapons. Russia has the world’s largest arsenal of so-called tactical nuclear weapons, which have a lower yield and can be used in more limited battlefield scenarios.
Earlier this year, in response to Britain’s announcement that Ukraine could use its own weapons to attack Russia, and French President Emmanuel Macron’s suggestion that Western countries might send ground troops to Ukraine, Putin ordered his military to practice using such weapons.
The Kremlin leader has frequently warned his Western enemies not to pursue Moscow’s “strategic defeat” by losing the war in Ukraine – a message he reiterated on Thursday.
“It means the end of 1,000 years of Russian statehood,” he said. “I think everyone knows this. And then the question arises: Why should we be afraid? Isn’t it better to hold out?”
