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\nSouth Korea urged Russia to stop its \u201cillegal cooperation\u201d with North Korea and voiced \u201cgrave concern\u201d on Friday as Moscow moved to ratify its defense treaty with Pyongyang.
Russian lawmakers voted unanimously on Thursday to ratify a defense treaty with North Korea that provides for \u201cmutual assistance\u201d if either party faces aggression. It will now be sent to the upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, for approval.
According to South Korea and the United States, thousands of North Korean troops were training in Russia.
Ukraine said this week that North Korean soldiers had arrived in the \u201ccombat zone\u201d in Russia\u2019s Kursk border region.
While stopping short of confirming boots on the ground, a North Korean official said any troop deployment to Russia would be in line with international law.
The South Korean government said it \u201cstrongly urges the immediate withdrawal of North Korean troops and the cessation of illegal cooperation.\u201d
Seoul \u201cexpresses grave concern over Russia\u2019s ratification of the Russia-North Korea treaty amidst the ongoing deployment of North Korean troops to Russia,\u201d the South Korean foreign ministry said in a statement.
Seoul said it would work with allies to \u201ctake appropriate measures\u201d over the move, and the country \u2013 a major arms exporter \u2013 has suggested it could revise its longstanding policy that prevents sending weapons directly to Kyiv.
The national security advisors of the United States, South Korea, and Japan on Friday discussed the North Korean troop deployment, the White House said, with the officials expressing \u201cgrave concern\u201d at the development.
\u201cThis deployment is the latest in a series of concerning indicators of deepening military cooperation between the DPRK and Russia,\u201d US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, using the acronym for the official name of North Korea.
Also on Friday leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies finalized details surrounding a $50 billion loan to aid Kyiv, backed by profits from Russia\u2019s frozen sovereign assets, according to a statement by G7 leaders.
They said they \u201chave reached a consensus on how to deliver\u201d the loans that will \u201csupport Ukraine\u2019s budgetary, military and reconstruction assistance,\u201d with an aim to start disbursing funds by the end of this year.
As early as October 21, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia was planning to send North Korean troops into battle against his country. He urged world leaders to pile \u201ctangible pressure\u201d on Pyongyang.
Zelensky said North Korean troops could be sent to fight Ukrainian troops this weekend.
\u201cThe actual involvement of North Korea in hostilities should be met not with a blind eye and confused comments but with tangible pressure on both Moscow and Pyongyang to comply with the UN Charter and to punish escalation,\u201d he said on social media.
A senior official within the Ukrainian president\u2019s office said the North Korean troops could be deployed either to the Russian region of Kursk or in eastern Ukraine.
Branding the prospect \u201cvery worrying,\u201d Germany\u2019s Chancellor Olaf Scholz said it showed that Russian President Vladimir Putin was facing difficulties in the war.
\u201cIt is serious and, of course, something that escalates the situation further,\u201d he told German media while visiting India.
Putin said in an interview that aired Friday on state television that it was up to Moscow how it uses the new defense treaty\u2019s clause on mutual military assistance.
\u201cIt\u2019s our sovereign decision, whether we use something or not,\u201d Putin said. \u201cWhere, how, whether we need this, or (if) we, for example, only carry out some exercises, training, passing on some experience \u2013 that\u2019s our business.\u201d
Seoul and Washington have long claimed that the nuclear-armed North is shipping arms to Russia.
One of North Korea\u2019s United Nations representatives said at the UN General Assembly\u2019s First Committee on Disarmament and International Security that the country was sending neither weapons nor soldiers to help Moscow.
The allegations by South Korea and others are \u201cnothing more than groundless rumors aimed at tarnishing the image of DPRK,\u201d Rim Mu Song said.
South Korea\u2019s representative flagged videos circulating online of North Korean soldiers in Russian uniforms speaking Korean, but Rim said they \u201cagain totally reject the allegation\u201d of troop deployment.
On Friday, a diplomatic official in Pyongyang argued that his country would be well within its rights to deploy soldiers on Russian soil.
\u201cIf there is such a thing that the world media is talking about, I think it will be an act conforming with the regulations of international law,\u201d said Kim Jong Gyu, North Korea\u2019s vice foreign minister in charge of Russian affairs.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has called the deployment a \u201cprovocation that threatens global security beyond the Korean Peninsula and Europe.\u201d
Yoon also said South Korea will review its stance on providing weapons to Ukraine.
Seoul has already sold billions of dollars of tanks, howitzers, attack aircraft, and rocket launchers to Poland, a key ally of Kyiv.
In June, South Korea agreed to transfer the knowledge needed to build K2 tanks to Poland, which experts have said could be a key step towards production inside Ukraine.
South Korea\u2019s Hanwha Aerospace has signed a $1.64-billion deal with Poland to supply rocket artillery units.<\/p>\n