Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean leader’s influential sister, accused the US of waging a “proxy war” against Russia.
The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has condemned the United States’ decision to supply Ukraine with advanced main battle tanks to help fight Russian forces, accusing Washington of crossing a “red line” and waging a “proxy war.” to have escalated to destruction Moscow.
Kim Yo Jong’s comments on Friday underscored North Korea’s deepening alignment with Russia over the war in Ukraine, while it also confronts the US and its Asian allies over their own growing nuclear weapons and missile programs.
“I express serious concern that the US is escalating the war situation by providing Ukraine with military equipment for ground offensives,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement, her first public statement in months.
“The US is the arch-criminal that poses a serious threat and challenge to Russia’s strategic security and is driving the regional situation to the present serious stage,” said Kim, deputy department chief of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea.
“I have no doubt that any military equipment that the US and the West boast of will be torn to pieces in the face of the indomitable fighting spirit and might of the heroic Russian army and people,” she said, adding that North Korea always “standing in the same ditch” with Russia.
Kim’s comments, relayed by the country’s official Korean Central News Agency, came after the US announced it would send 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, reversing months of Washington indecision on the issue. The US announcement followed Germany’s decision to also provide Ukraine with 14 Leopard 2 A6 tanks from its own stocks.
NEW: Kim Jong Un’s sister has criticized the US for sending tanks to Ukraine.
In a statement released by KCNA on Friday, Kim Yo Jong criticized Washington for “crossing the line” and putting Europe in “serious danger”.https://t.co/9rIi0HWRSj
— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) January 28, 2023
Kim said US President Joe Biden’s administration “further crossed the red line” by sending its main battle tanks to Ukraine and that the decision reflects a “sinister intent to realize its hegemonic goal by promoting proxy war.” Destruction of Russia continues to expand”.
North Korea has blamed the US for the crisis in Ukraine and has insisted that the West’s “hegemonic policies” have forced Russia to take military action to protect its security interests.
North Korea is also the only nation alongside Russia and Syria to recognize the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, two Russian-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine, and has also hinted at plans to send workers there to help with reconstruction.
The US has accused North Korea of sending large shipments of artillery shells and other ammunition to Russia to support its offensive in Ukraine, although North Korea has repeatedly denied this allegation.
Pyongyang has also accelerated its weapons development, testing more than 70 missiles in 2022 alone, including potentially nuclear-capable ICBMs.
(Al Jazeera)