Putin says North Korea has its own 'nuclear umbrella'

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a media interview Wednesday that North Korea possesses its own nuclear umbrella and hasn’t made any requests to Moscow regarding nuclear weapons.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during an interview in Moscow on Tuesday. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a media interview Wednesday that North Korea possesses its own nuclear umbrella and hasn’t made any requests to Moscow regarding nuclear weapons.

Mentioning North Korea’s nuclear umbrella could itself be interpreted as recognition of North Korea as a de facto nuclear state.

In a media interview with the state-owned Russia-1 channel and RIA Novosti news agency, Putin said “the DPRK has its own nuclear umbrella” and that “no requests were made to Russia” on nuclear weapons. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or DPRK, is North Korea’s official name.

Putin declared that Russia is ready for nuclear war and warned against the deployment of U.S. troops to Ukraine.

“From a military-technical point of view, we are of course ready for a nuclear war,” Putin said during the interview. “We will use nuclear weapons when it is related to the existence of Russia or when our sovereignty and independence are undermined.

“Our three major nuclear forces are more modern than that of other countries,” Putin said, referring to the nuclear triad, which includes intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and strategic bombers.

Regarding the possibility of the United States sending troops to Ukraine, Putin said Russia “knows what it means for U.S. troops to appear on Russian territory” and that it will be “seen as interference.”

“We will treat the deployment of U.S. troops to Ukraine as interference if it happens and the U.S. understands this,” said Putin. “[In the United States] there are enough specialists in the field of Russian-American relations and in the field of strategic restraint.”

Putin is set to win another election, which will begin on March 15. The latest poll shows that he will likely receive more than 80 percent of the votes.

A poll conducted by Russian state-run public opinion polling agency Vciom showed that Putin will receive 82 percent of the votes, according to a report by German news agency DPA on Tuesday. This was the last public opinion poll conducted before the Russian presidential election, and the expected voter turnout is 71 percent.

The re-election of Putin, who is running for a fifth term in the Kremlin, appears inevitable, with the Russian president emphasizing that this election is “for the future of Russia.”

North Korea and Russia have recently been deepening ties, with the Kim Jong-un regime supplying Moscow with more than 10,000 containers of munitions or munition-related materials to Russia since September last year, according to reports from the U.S. State Department.

Pyongyang has been seeking military assistance from Moscow in return for the provision of arms, according to U.S. officials. This comes as South Korea, Japan and the United States draw closer in trilateral security cooperation, with Washington offering strengthened extended deterrence to its East Asian allies.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un "almost certainly has no intentions" of negotiating away his country's nuclear weapons program, according to a recent U.S. intelligence report, as he perceives it "to be a guarantor of regime security and national pride."

Kim "probably hopes that he can use his burgeoning defense ties with Russia to pursue his goal of achieving international acceptance as a nuclear power,” the Office of the U.S. Director of National Intelligence (DNI) reported in its 2024 Annual Threat Assessment.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]