North Korea has offered Russia its full support after the Wagner paramilitary group mutiny, state media reported on Sunday.
• Also read: Wagner ends his uprising and withdraws from his positions in Russia
• Also read: Moscow warns the West against wanting to “exploit” the situation
• Also read: Russia’s weakness is “obvious,” says the Ukrainian president
In a meeting with Russian Ambassador to Pyongyang Alexander Matsegora, North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Im Chon Il “expressed his firm belief that the recent armed insurgency in Russia would be successfully crushed,” North Korea’s KCNA news agency reported.
The forces of the Wagner paramilitary group began to evacuate their positions in Russia on the orders of their leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who reversed course after frontally challenging the authority of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to KCNA, Mr. Im reiterated that “the Russian army and people will surely overcome the hardships and emerge heroically victorious from the special military operation against Ukraine.”
For Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine threatens the “stability of the Russian state”.
“There will be implications for the Russia-China-North Korea bloc and officials in Beijing and Pyongyang are no doubt taking notes to avoid repeating Moscow’s mistakes,” he added.
North Korea has called the conflict a US “proxy war” aimed at destroying Russia and has condemned Western military aid to Kiev.
As a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, Russia has long vetoed new sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear program and repeated missile launches.