Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated on Sunday that he believes Russia has transferred jet-powered drone technology to its long-time ally, North Korea, according to reports from Reuters.
In recent weeks, Russia has significantly increased its use of jet drones against Ukraine, which currently lacks effective countermeasures aside from deploying fighter jets.
At the start of the war, North Korea supplied Russia with millions of artillery shells and later delivered ballistic missiles, which Moscow has regularly used to target Ukrainian cities.
When questioned about whether Russia had passed along the technology behind the latest generation of jet-powered drones to North Korea, Zelensky affirmed, saying, “Yes, of course.” He added, “They (the Russians) share all technologies with North Korea. I don’t know about the ballistic missiles and so on, but I believe so, because North Korea has helped them with missiles.”
South Korea and Western nations have previously expressed concerns that Pyongyang may receive support from Moscow for weapon development in exchange for its assistance to Russia in the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Thousands of North Korean soldiers have been sent to Russia to gain combat experience.
Seoul and Kyiv have been embroiled in a diplomatic dispute since Zelensky announced last month at the UN General Assembly that Ukraine had transferred two North Korean prisoners of war captured while fighting for Russia to South Korea.
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung threatened unspecified measures against Ukraine if Kyiv does not acknowledge the existence of a confidentiality agreement that Seoul claims was the basis for the transfer and does not issue an apology.
Zelensky remarked, “South Korea asked us to hand over the North Korean soldiers. By the way, according to their Constitution, they are their citizens… so we handed over these two individuals,” without addressing Lee’s comments.
