UKRAINE-CRISIS/NORTH KOREAN – REUTERS Agency
SEOUL, April 1 (Reuters) – Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has accused Ukraine of calling for nuclear weapons, state media KCNA reported on Saturday, basing her claim on an online petition in that country that so far it has attracted fewer than 1,000 signatures.
Kim said that this type of request could be a political plot by President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, but he did not provide any evidence for this claim.
Following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement last week that Moscow plans to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, a public petition was posted on the website of the Ukrainian presidential office on Thursday, calling for Ukraine to host nuclear weapons in Ukrainian territory, or to arm itself with its own nuclear weapons.
As of Saturday afternoon, the petition had only garnered 611 signatures, far short of the 25,000 needed to get a response from Zelensky. The kyiv authorities have so far not ruled on the petition.
North Korea is tightening ties with the Kremlin amid isolation shared by the West and supported Moscow’s stance after Russia invaded Ukraine last year, including its subsequent proclaimed annexation of parts of Ukraine that most UN members they condemned as illegal. It has denied supplying weapons to Moscow. (Hyunsu Yim in Seoul and Max Hunder in kyiv, Edited in Spanish by Manuel Farías)
Source: Ambito
