Remarks at a UN Security Council Briefing on Ukraine

Ambassador Robert Wood
Alternative Representative for Special Political Affairs
New York, New York

October 30, 2024

AS DELIVERED

Thank you, Madam President. And thank you Assistant Secretary-General Jenča for your briefing.

For 979 days, Russia has waged a brutal full-scale war against a fellow UN Member State and its people, and with each passing day, as Russia suffers immense losses, the Kremlin has grown increasingly desperate. Inviting North Korea to join its war would be a brazen escalation of Russia’s aggression and a threat to global safety and security.

The United States has seen additional reporting indicating that North Korean soldiers have started arriving in Western Russia. We believe the DPRK has sent around 10,000 soldiers to train in eastern Russia, and that they will probably augment Russian forces near Ukraine in the next several weeks. A portion of those soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine.

We are increasingly concerned Russia intends to use these soldiers in combat, or to support combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk Oblast near the border with Ukraine.

We are watching closely for such indications and consulting with our Ukrainian partners. We urge Russia not to take these steps. Should DPRK soldiers be used in the battlefield, this would mark a further and serious escalation of the conflict.

The decision to deploy North Korean soldiers would also be an inescapably clear demonstration that Russia is growing more desperate, having already suffered more than half a million casualties.

Russia knows the DPRK threatens peace and security in the region. The Kremlin knows the DPRK’s unlawful ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs undermine the nonproliferation regime that has helped to keep the world safe from nuclear war for decades. Russia knows the DPRK is a pariah with one of the world’s worst human rights records. Russia would not turn to the DPRK for a military alliance unless it were desperate and had run out of options.

Madam President. Just a few years ago, Russia supported multiple Security Council resolutions prohibiting both arms transfers involving North Korea and provision of military assistance to North Korea. Russia’s training of DPRK soldiers involving arms or related materiel is a violation of Security Council Resolutions 1718, 1874, and 2270.

Each of those resolutions imposed restrictions on military cooperation with the DPRK because the DPRK’s actions, including its unlawful nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, threatened peace and security. Now, Moscow is not only engaging in both of those activities to support its unprovoked war but has signed a mutual defense agreement with Pyongyang.

This Council, including the Russian Federation, also imposed arms embargoes on Iran and the DPRK to deter those countries’ unlawful Weapons of Mass Destruction programs. We question what Russia must be giving to the DPRK and Iran in return for their assistance.

At a minimum, we know Russia is blocking the DPRK sanctions committee from operating. That committee is a safeguard against the DPRK’s development of nuclear weapons.

Russia’s increasing military dependence on Iran and the DPRK is endangering the world, particularly by increasing DPRK and Iran’s ability to threaten the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East on a catastrophic level.

Russia must stop. It is not too late for Russia to reverse its illegal and dangerous course and end the war. It is not too late for Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine, rejoin the world community, and begin to repair its global standing.

Absent Russia’s will, the international community must act to protect Ukraine from Russia and North Korea. A North Korean-backed Russian victory in Ukraine, even a partial one, would dangerously destabilize the world.

So let me be clear, even with the addition of North Korean troops, Russian forces will not prevail against Ukraine. We will stand with Ukraine. We will stand with the Charter. We will stand with the rules-based system and the principles that keep us safe. We will protect them, whatever it takes. Our resolve is firm, have no doubt. There is only one safe solution to Russia’s aggression – its complete withdrawal from Ukraine.

Thank you, Madam President.

###

By United States Mission to the United Nations | 30 October, 2024 | Topics: Highlights, Remarks and Highlights