North Korean troops in Russia
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 23 October 2024
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The US and South Korea have said that about 3,000 troops from North Korea are now in Russia, raising concerns that they may fight in Russia war in Ukraine. Also on the programme, the World Health Organisation has postponed a huge polio vaccination campaign in northern Gaza because of worsening violence; and, a recently discovered piece of music written by a Polish prisoner whilst he was held in the Nazi concentration camp - Auschwitz.
(Photo: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects the headquarters of the 2nd Corps of North Korean army, October 17, 2024, in this photo released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency. KCNA via REUTERS )
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to News Hour live from the BBC World Service in London. |
| 0:07.8 | I'm Rebecca Kersby. |
| 0:09.8 | Is Russia using North Korean troops to boost its offensive against Ukraine? |
| 0:15.6 | It's an accusation first made fairly recently by the Ukrainian president, |
| 0:20.0 | Voldemir Zelensky. |
| 0:21.6 | Today it was echoed by the US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin who said |
| 0:26.3 | he'd seen evidence that North Korean troops were already in Russia, but that why wasn't clear. |
| 0:33.6 | He said if they were used to fight in Ukraine, |
| 0:35.9 | it would be very, very serious. |
| 0:38.9 | Well, our Russia editor Steve Rosenberg |
| 0:41.0 | managed to catch up with a staunch Putin ally today, the Belarusian |
| 0:44.9 | leader Alexander Lukashenko. He spoke to him a few hours ago at the BRICS summit in the |
| 0:49.8 | Russian city of Kazan and Steve asked him whether the reports that the North Korean troops |
| 0:55.8 | had been sent to Russia to help its campaign against Ukraine were true. |
| 0:59.8 | That's rubbish. That would never That's rubbish that would mean an escalation of the conflict |
| 1:06.5 | Knowing his character Putin would never try to persuade a country to involve its armed forces in a special military operation, the conflict in Ukraine, |
| 1:16.6 | especially on the front line. |
| 1:19.1 | I don't believe it. |
| 1:20.4 | I say that knowing Putin's character Russia's got enough people to conduct military |
| 1:26.4 | actions. |
| 1:27.4 | Well the reports of North Korean troops heading to Russia first emerged last week from South Korea. |
| 1:34.0 | Russia and North Korea have both denied them, |
... |
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