Russia’s foreign ministry warned Wednesday that South Korea could face “security consequences” if it gets involved in the war in Ukraine, as Seoul has vowed to take “phased” measures in response to growing military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.
Maria Zakharova, the ministry’s spokesperson, issued the warning as Seoul announced its plan Tuesday to take the measures following its spy agency’s confirmation that Pyongyang plans to dispatch around 10,000 soldiers to support Russia’s war in Ukraine, including some 1,500 troops that it has already sent.
“They should think about the security consequences if it gets involved in the Ukrainian crisis,” she said during a press briefing through an English-language interpreter. “The Russian Federation will react on those aggressive steps, if our citizens are under threats, under peril.”
Portraying the Ukrainian government as a “terrorist regime,” the spokesperson stressed that the South Korean government should not “play along with the Kyiv regime.”
“We sincerely hope that the Seoul authorities are guided by common sense,” she said.
“We have a good experience of mutual understanding and cooperation in humanitarian and economic areas. We have different political, geopolitical views, but that hasn’t been an obstacle for us to have good, humanitarian, educational and other times and to develop our cooperation in other areas,” she added.
Zakharova dismissed the reports of the North’s troop dispatch as “fake.”
“The armed forces of North Korea exist, but you should turn to Pyongyang to identify their location,” she said. “I cannot [understand] why there has been so much gossip, so many loud noises around this. This is a propaganda work.”
“Russian cooperation with North Korea in military and other areas corresponds to international law,” she said. “That is the first and the second is that we don’t inflict any damage to South Korea,”
“I cannot understand so much fuss about it coming from Seoul.”
Hours earlier, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed that North Korean troops are in Russia, while he noted that Washington does not know the reason why the troops are there.
Yonhap
