North Korea claims ‘troop deployment to Russia’ conforms to international law

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North Korea said Friday that any troop deployment to Russia would be in line with international law, state media reported, but stopped short of confirming it had sent soldiers.

"If 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," said Kim Jong Gyu, vice foreign minister in charge of Russian Affairs, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

Seoul and Washington have accused the nuclear-armed North Korea of sending thousands of troops to Russia, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saying they could be sent into battle as early as Sunday.

Seoul, which has long accused the North of sending vast shipments of weapons to Russia, has pointed to videos circulating online which appear to show North Korean soldiers in Russian uniforms at military bases in the Far East.

North Korea's representatives at the United Nations have dismissed the claims.

In the first mention of the issue in North Korean state media, vice foreign minister Kim Jong Gyu said he had "heeded the rumour of the dispatch of Korean People's Army troops to Russia".

North Korea's Foreign Ministry "does not directly engage in the things of the Ministry of National Defence, and does not feel the need to confirm it separately," he said.

Were it to exist, "it will be an act conforming with the regulations of international law," he said.

"There will evidently exist forces which want to describe it as illegal one," Kim added.

South Korea has slammed the deployment of troops, calling on Russia to stop "illegal cooperation" with Pyongyang, and warned it would review its stance on providing weapons directly to Ukraine in its war with Russia.

Domestic policy bars Seoul from selling weaponry into active conflict zones, but the country -- a top arms exporter -- has already sold billions of dollars of tanks, howitzers, attack aircraft and rocket launchers to Poland, a key ally of Kyiv.