(Bloomberg) -- President Vladimir Putin said military relations with North Korea are “our business” as he avoided answering whether Pyongyang had sent troops to Russia.
Putin didn’t say whether North Korean troops were in Russia already, when asked about the subject at a news conference Thursday at the end of the BRICS summit in Kazan. Instead, he pointed to Article 4 of a strategic partnership agreement with North Korea that he said Russia had now ratified.
“We have never doubted that the North Korean leadership treats the agreements seriously,” Putin said. “But what and how we do so is our business within the framework of this article.”
The defense accord Putin signed with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June states in Article 4 that the two countries will provide military and other assistance if either of them is attacked. Kim vowed to “unconditionally support” Russia in its invasion of Ukraine during Putin’s first visit to Pyongyang in 24 years.
“We need to hold appropriate negotiations for the implementation of this Article 4, but we are in contact with our Korean friends,” Putin said, without elaborating. “Let’s see how this process develops.”
The US and South Korea have alleged that North Korea is sending troops to Russia. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said it created the “very, very serious” possibility that they will be sent into combat in Ukraine, though he also said analysts were continuing to study what they may be doing in Russia.
Ukraine’s military intelligence said on Telegram that the first units of North Korean troops had passed through training drills in Russia and had already arrived in the area of fighting. This included the Kursk region of Russia where Ukrainian forces have occupied part of the border area, according to the intelligence service.
The information couldn’t be independently verified by Bloomberg News.
Putin also told reporters that Russian forces had surrounded about 2,000 Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region and had “started to eliminate” them. The claim couldn’t be independently verified.
The Russian leader’s claim is a “lie” intended to spread disinformation and cause panic among Ukrainian troops, Andrii Kovaliov, military spokesman for the General Staff in Kyiv, said by phone.
--With assistance from Volodymyr Verbianyi and Kateryna Chursina.
(Updates with Ukrainian General Staff comment in the last paragraph)
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