North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets Russia’s President Vladimir Putin at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Amur Oblast of the Far East Region, Russia, September 13, 2023 in this image released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency. KCNA via REUTERS
MOSCOW, Sept 14 (Reuters) – Russia on Thursday said the United States was hypocritical to criticise President Vladimir Putin’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un because Washington had sown chaos and sent weapons to allies across the world.
“The United States has no right to lecture us on how to live,” Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, said in a statement.
For the United States and allies, the burgeoning friendship between Kim and Putin is a concern: Washington has accused North Korea of providing arms to Russia, but it is unclear whether any deliveries have been made.
The United States, Antonov said, had built up a coalition in Asia, expanded military drills near the Korean peninsula and was supplying billions of dollars of weapons to Ukraine.
“It is time for Washington to throw its economic sanctions into the rubbish dump,” Antonov said. “Maintaining the unipolar dominance so beloved by American officials is no longer possible.”