North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s influential sister has slammed the United States for providing Ukraine with advanced battle tanks to help fight Russian forces.
In a statement carried by the country’s official Korean Central News Agency, Kim Yo Jong who is Deputy Director of the Central Committee of the Workers Party, accused Washington of crossing a “red line” and escalating a “proxy war” designed to weaken Russia.
“I express serious concern over the US escalating the war situation by providing Ukraine with military hardware for ground offensive.”
She added that the United States is the “arch criminal” that “poses a serious threat and challenge to Russia’s strategic security and pushes the regional situation to a grave phase”.
Kim Yo Jong also echo’s Russian narrative, saying “I do not doubt that any military hardware the U.S. and the West boast of will be burnt into pieces in the face of the indomitable fighting spirit and might of the heroic Russian army and people”.
The comments came after the US announced that it would send 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, reversing months of indecision on the issue. This decision followed Germany’s decision to also provide Ukraine with 14 Leopard 2 A6 tanks from its own stocks.
North Korea blames the United States for the war in Ukraine and claims that the West’s “hegemonic policy” forced Russia to take military action in self defense to protect its security interests.
North Korea is also the only nation other than Russia and Syria to recognize the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, two Russian-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.
The U.S. has accused North Korea of sending large supplies of artillery shells and other ammunition to Russia to support its offensive in Ukraine.