The Korean Central News Agency reported today that Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, accused Ukraine of seeking to possess nuclear weapons, based on a petition on the internet in Ukraine that has garnered fewer than a thousand signatures so far. Kim stated that such a petition could be a political scheme from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's office, but she did not provide any evidence to support this claim.
Following Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement last week that Moscow plans to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, a public petition was published on the website of the Ukrainian presidency on Thursday, calling for Ukraine to deploy nuclear weapons on its territory or to arm itself with nuclear weapons.
By Saturday afternoon, 611 people had signed the petition, far less than the 25,000 signatures required for a response from Zelensky. Ukrainian officials have not commented on the petition yet.
North Korea is cultivating closer ties with the Kremlin amid mutual isolation imposed by the West on both countries and has supported Moscow's position following the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year, including its subsequent annexation of parts of Ukraine, a move condemned by most UN member states as illegal. North Korea denies supplying weapons to Moscow.
