Ukraine’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Sergiy Kyslytsya, stressed the legality of arms supplies to Ukraine, in contrast to the aid Russia is receiving from North Korea.
The diplomat spoke at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Wednesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reported from New York.
“Even mice and cockroaches, but not the Russian ambassador in this chamber, know that none of the countries that provide assistance to Ukraine is under the Security Council sanctions, yet, in its turn, receiving assistance from from the fully sanctioned North Korea is a brazen violation of the UN Charter,” he said.
It goes without saying that the deployment of North Korean troops to support the Russian war against Ukraine is a gross violation of international law, including the UN Charter, he emphasized, listing the provisions of the resolutions that Russia and North Korea have breached.
As the diplomat noted, providing or receiving any training or other assistance related to the use of weapons, including ballistic missiles, by the North Korean military is also a violation of Security Council resolutions.
Kyslytsya called on the UN Security Council and its Committee on North Korea Sanctions to consider the failure of Pyongyang and Moscow to comply with the relevant resolutions.
According to the available information, the Ukrainian diplomat noted, the DPRK contingent, consisting of up to 12,000 servicemen, is being trained at five training grounds in Russia’s Eastern Military District. The force includes at least 500 officers from the DPRK army, with three generals from the General Staff of the “Korean people’s army”.
The envoy revealed their positions and names:
– Colonel General Kim Young Bok, Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Special Forces Operations;
– Colonel General Lee Chang Ho, Deputy Chief of the General Staff – Head of the Reconnaissance Directorate; and
– Major General Shin Geum Cheol, Head of the Main Operational Directorate.
Subsequently, the plan is to build up at least five 2,000 to 3,000-strong units or formations staffed by North Korean troops. One such unit would be equivalent to a motorized rifle regiment.
It is assumed that North Korean servicemen will sport Russian uniforms and be provided with Russian military IDs.
According to Kyslytsya, in order to conceal the presence of North Korean servicemen on the battlefield, they will be integrated into Russian units staffed by ethnic minorities from the Asian part of the Russian Federation. Among them is the “special Buryat battalion”, part of the 11th separate airborne assault brigade.
It is also known, the Ukrainian diplomat added, that from October 23 to 28, at least seven planes brought up to 2,100 servicemen from Russia’s East to the border with Ukraine.
The number of North Korean soldiers expected to be transferred from Russia’s Primorsky Krai by the end of October may reach 4,500. As early as November, they will obviously begin to take direct part in hostilities against the Armed Forces.
On October 26, 400 North Korean troops arrived in the western part of Russia’s Kursk region, Kyslytsya added.
As reported, on Wednesday, the UN Security Council, at the request of Ukraine, discussed the supply of North Korean weapons and manpower to Russia for the war against Ukraine.
Source: Kyslytsya tells UNSC names of North Korean generals deployed for war against Ukraine
