In a statement published by the state news agency KCNA, Pak Jong Chon, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea, said that recent events indicate that the risks in this direction are increasing.

He particularly cited statements by senior US officials that Ukraine can use US-supplied weapons against any Russian territory from which it has been attacked.

Pak noted that a strategic counter-attack by Russia would be an act of legitimate self-defence and assured that the DPRK ‘will always stand with the Russian army and people, who are fighting a just struggle to defend the sovereign rights, strategic stability and territorial integrity of the State’.

Last week, during a fleeting visit to the DPRK, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement with State Affairs Committee Chairman Kim Jong Un that provides for mutual assistance in the event of aggression.

The two leaders stressed that this was a sovereign and purely defensive act, as it was not directed against third parties.

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