Russia's ambassador to Pyongyang has said that North Korean labour could be sent to repair Russian-controlled territories in Ukraine.
According to NK News, a South Korean news outlet, Alexander Matsegora said North Korean workers could help rebuild war-damaged areas in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine.
Matsegora said there were “a lot of opportunities” for economic cooperation between North Korea and the self-proclaimed republics in Ukraine's east that are ruled by pro-Moscow forces.
Pyongyang officially recognised these territories earlier in the week, although it is one of the only countries in the world to do so. This move provoked the ire of Ukraine, which cut off diplomatic ties with North Korea as a result.
“Highly qualified and hard-working Korean builders, who are capable of working in the most difficult conditions, could help us restore our social, infrastructure and industrial facilities," Matsegora said to the Russian newspaper Izvestia in an interview.
Ukraine's foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said Russia’s appeal to North Korea showed that Moscow had “no more allies in the world, except for countries that depend on it financially and politically.”
The international sanctions imposed on North Korea over its nuclear weapons programme would be undermined, if North Korean labour were to be used in Ukraine.
Russian missiles rained down on the centre of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk on Tuesday, its regional governor said.
At least one person was killed when a five-story residential building was hit in an attack, which caused loud explosions and fire in the civilian area, claimed Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region.
“There was no one here. Everything is ruined,” the resident
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