NY.- Russian President Vladimir V. Putin directly warned the United States and its allies that he is willing to arm North Korea if they continue to supply Kiev with sophisticated weapons that have hit Russian territory, raising the stakes for the Western powers that support Ukraine.
Putin made this threat in remarks to journalists traveling with him late Thursday in Vietnam, before returning to Russia after a trip to that country and North Korea. A day earlier, in Pyongyang, he revived a Cold War-era mutual defense pact with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The pact requires each nation to provide military assistance to the other “with all means at its disposal” in the event of an attack.
Mr. Putin made his threat to arm Pyongyang, in violation of United Nations sanctions, in response to decisions by the United States and its allies in recent months to allow Ukraine to carry out certain attacks on Russian territory with its weapons. The White House made that decision last month, but maintained its ban on larger attacks inside the country with American weapons.
“Those who supply these weapons believe that they are not at war with us,” Putin said. “Well, as I said, even in Pyongyang, then we reserve the right to supply weapons to other regions of the world.”
“And where will they go next?” Putin asked, suggesting that North Korea could sell Russian weapons to other actors hostile to the United States and its allies around the world.
Although Mr. Putin did not say what weapons he would give North Korea, Mr. Kim is seeking to advance its nuclear warheads, missiles, submarines and satellites – all areas where Russia possesses some of the world’s most sophisticated and dangerous technologies. .
The Russian leader’s visit to Pyongyang highlighted how the war in Ukraine has become the guiding principle of his foreign policy, trumping other priorities the Kremlin had 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 its war against Ukraine, helping Mr. Putin overcome ammunition shortages. Both Russia and North Korea have denied any arms exchange, which would violate UN sanctions.
For years, Russia has participated in United Nations efforts to limit Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile program, passing resolution after resolution in the Security Council to limit his regime’s access to weapons, technology and resources. The restrictions were introduced as North Korea conducted six nuclear tests and developed an intercontinental ballistic missile program.
But now Mr. Putin has radically changed course, advocating an end to the very sanctions he approved, driven by his desire to increase the cost to the United States of supporting Ukraine and Russia’s need for the North Korea’s vast stores of ammunition and conventional weapons for use on the battlefield.
“Here the Westerners supply weapons to Ukraine and say that ‘we don’t control anything here at all, and it doesn’t matter how they are used,'” Putin said. “We can also say that we give something to someone, and then we have no control over anything. Think about it.”
His revival of the Cold War-era mutual defense commitment to North Korea, and his suggestion that it could arm Mr. Kim’s regime, stoked fears in South Korea and Japan, which host tens of thousands of troops. Americans on American bases.
South Korean officials said they would consider providing lethal assistance to Ukraine in response. Putin warned them against such a decision in his remarks on Thursday before leaving the region.
“It would be a big mistake,” Putin said. “I hope this does not happen. If this happens, we will also take appropriate measures, which will probably not please the current leadership of South Korea.”
He said the mutual defense pact should not worry South Korea, because it provides for Russian military intervention only in the event of aggression against North Korea, and as far as he knew, he said, Seoul had no intention of carrying out such stroke.
The Russian leader, who has made criticism of the “sanctions strangulation” a centerpiece of his international messaging, compared the restrictions on North Korea to the Nazi siege of Leningrad during World War II, which resulted in deaths of his older brother, who was one year old at the time.
Putin reiterated in his comments Thursday that those sanctions needed to be reassessed, particularly questioning those related to labor migration, saying North Korean families were unable to earn money or feed their children.
“Does this remind you of anything?” Putin said, referring to World War II. “And this is human?”
Putin’s trip to Pyongyang came days after he made public new demands to end the war in Ukraine. He said he would agree to a ceasefire and hold talks if kyiv withdrew troops from the four regions of eastern Ukraine that Moscow claims as its own and abandoned its aspirations to join NATO. Russia has not occupied all of the territory in those regions at any time during the war.
Ukraine and its Western allies immediately rejected the proposal as a demand for capitulation and more Ukrainian territory, rather than a sincere openness to negotiation.
Since then, the Russian leader and his top lieutenants have urged the West to take the offer seriously and have sought to ramp up pressure, warning of worse and more catastrophic battlefield conditions ahead.
The Russian leader also claimed that Moscow was considering changing its nuclear doctrine in response to new devices developed by the West that lower the threshold for nuclear use. Russia has the world’s largest arsenal of so-called tactical nuclear weapons, which have lower yields and can be used in more limited battlefield scenarios.
Mr. Putin ordered his troops to practice using such weapons earlier this year in response to Britain’s announcement that Ukraine could use its weapons to hit Russia and to suggestions by President Emmanuel Macron of France that nations Westerners could put troops on the ground in Ukraine.
The Kremlin leader has regularly warned his Western enemies against seeking Moscow’s “strategic defeat” through a loss in the war against Ukraine, a message he reiterated on Thursday.
“This means the end of the thousand-year history of the Russian state,” he said. “I think this is clear to everyone. And then the question arises: Why should we be afraid? Isn’t it better to go to the end?”
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