Putin says Russia may send weapons to North Korea

President Vladimir Putin said that Russia might supply weapons to North Korea in what he suggested would be a mirror response to the Western arming of Ukraine.

Putin was speaking to reporters in Vietnam on Thursday, a day after visiting North Korea and signing a mutual defense agreement with its leader, Kim Jong Un.

“I said, including in Pyongyang, that we then reserve the right to supply weapons to other regions of the world. Taking into account our agreements with [North Korea], I do not exclude this either,” he said, Al Jazeera reported.

The treaty signed by Putin and Kim on Wednesday commits each side to provide immediate military assistance to the other in the event of armed aggression against either one of them.

Putin said Moscow expected that its cooperation with North Korea would serve as a deterrent to the West, but that there was no need to use North Korean soldiers for the war in Ukraine.

“Regarding the possibility of somehow using each other’s capabilities in the conflict in Ukraine, we are not asking anyone for this, no one has offered us this, therefore there is no need,” he said.