North Korea’s Kim Citing War in Ukraine as Rationale for Attacking Free Korea

Russ defense minister makes a visit to Pyongyang, where Kim says ‘right to self-defense’ obtains against nations providing weapons to Ukraine.

Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP
The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, meets the Russian defense minister, Andrei Belousov, at Pyongyang, November 29, 2024. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP

The war in Ukraine is providing North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, with what he apparently reckons is a rationale for attacking South Korea. The link between Russia’s campaign against Ukraine and North Korea’s threats against South Korea emerged during a visit to Pyongyang by the Russian defense minister. 

Mr. Kim told the visiting minister, Andrei Beloussov, that use of long-range weapons by members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization gave Russia “the right to self-defense” against those providing the weapons. The NATO allies, led by President Biden, are to blame for Ukraine firing “long-range strike weapons,” Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency quoted Mr. Kim as saying.

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