▲ U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks from the president's chair during a U.N. Security Council meeting at the U.N. headquarters in New York on Dec. 3, 2024, in this photo released by AFP. (Yonhap)

N Korea-Russia cooperation

U.S. assesses Russia may be close to accepting N. Korea's nuclear weapons program: Washington envoy

By Song Sang-ho

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 (Yonhap) -- The United States believes Russia may be close to accepting North Korea's nuclear weapons program in a reversal of its long-standing commitment to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, its ambassador to the United Nations said Wednesday.

During a U.N. Security Council (UNSC) meeting, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield revealed U.S. information that Moscow has transferred air defense systems to the North while underscoring the United States' concerns over Moscow's "intent" to share satellite and space technologies with Pyongyang.

She also offered the U.S.' assessment that Pyongyang has shipped more than 20,000 shipping containers of munitions to Russia to date, including at least 6 million heavy artillery rounds, along with well over 100 ballistic missiles.

"Alarmingly, we assess that Russia may be close to accepting North Korea's nuclear weapons program, reversing Moscow's decadelong commitment to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula," the ambassador said during the meeting presided over by her as this month's rotating UNSC president.

"We believe that Moscow will become more reluctant not only to criticize Pyongyang's development of nuclear weapons but also further obstruct passage of sanctions or resolutions condemning North Korea's destabilizing behavior as we've already seen," she added.

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