North Korea last month became one of the few countries in the world to recognize the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, another Russian-backed separatist region in eastern Ukraine.
The head of Russia’s proxy forces in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region has sent a message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un calling for cooperation amid signs the North is considering sending workers for reconstruction projects in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine.
North Korea last month became one of the few countries in the world to recognize the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, another Russian-backed separatist region in eastern Ukraine, prompting Kyiv to cut diplomatic ties with Pyongyang.
There are signs that North Korea is reconsidering plans to send workers to reconstruction projects in those regions, which could help its economy but run afoul of UN Security Council sanctions over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
In comments sent Monday, Donetsk separatist leader Denis Pushilin expressed hope that his Moscow-backed republic and North Korea could achieve “equally beneficial bilateral cooperation in line with the interests” of their people, the official North Korean Central News Agency said on Wednesday.
Donetsk’s foreign ministry said its ambassador to Russia, Olga Makeeva, met with North Korea’s ambassador to Russia, Sin Hong Chol, in Moscow on July 29 to discuss economic cooperation. Sin then said there would be “great potential” for bilateral cooperation in trade and “the field of labor migration” after North Korea eases pandemic border controls, according to the ministry.
North Korea is reportedly holding similar discussions with Luhansk.
In 2017, Russia supported sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council in response to North Korea’s long-range missile test, which required member states to repatriate all North Korean workers from their territories within 24 months.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price last month criticized Russian suggestions that North Korean workers could be employed on reconstruction projects in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine, saying such measures would be “an affront to Ukraine’s sovereignty”. Price was referring to comments by Russia’s ambassador to North Korea, Alexander Matsegora, who told the Tass news agency that North Korean construction workers would potentially provide “very serious help” in the reconstruction of the Donbas region.
Pushilin’s message to Kim was timed for the August 15 anniversary of the liberation of the Korean Peninsula from Japanese colonial rule at the end of World War II. He congratulated Kim on the anniversary and insisted that “the people of the Donbass region today are fighting to regain their freedom and the justice of history just like the Korean people 77 years ago,” KCNA said.
The report did not say whether Kim sent a message to Pushilin in response.
Together, Luhansk and Donetsk make up the Donbas region, a predominantly Russian-speaking region of steel mills, mines and other industries in eastern Ukraine. The separatists have controlled parts of both provinces since 2014, but Russian President Vladimir Putin only recognized their independence shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Syria is the only other country to recognize its independence.
North Korea has repeatedly blamed the United States for the crisis in Ukraine, saying the West’s “hegemonic policy” justifies Russia’s military actions in Ukraine to protect itself.
Kim is also using divisions in the UN Security Council, exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, to speed up his weapons development as he seeks to consolidate the North as a nuclear power and negotiate the removal of crippling US-led sanctions from a position of strength.
North Korea has tested more than 30 missiles in 2022 alone, including the first flight test of an intercontinental ballistic missile in nearly five years. There are also indications that the North is rebuilding tunnels at a nuclear test site that was last active in 2017 in possible preparations to resume testing nuclear explosives.