UK foreign secretary voices concern to SA counterpart about North Koreans fighting against Ukraine

Britain’s visiting foreign secretary, David Lammy, has expressed to his SA counterpart, Ronald Lamola, the UK’s “huge concern” that North Korea has sent troops to Russia to join in the fight against Ukraine.

Lammy said this at a press conference with Lamola in Cape Town on Tuesday when he was asked whether the UK was concerned about Pretoria’s warm relations with Russia and about the direction that the BRICS group was taking.

The context of Lammy’s remarks suggested that he thought South Africa should “talk to your Russian friends about the North Koreans”, as one SA official put it.

In his response to the same question, Lamola stressed that Russia and Ukraine should embark on direct peace talks and that SA would channel this message to Russia.

He said he had given Lammy feedback about his recent meeting with the visiting Ukrainian foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha. He and Sybiha had agreed that Ukraine would invite Russia to the next international meeting on Ukraine’s peace formula. So far Russia has been excluded.

Read more: ‘Russian air arsenal’ lands in Pretoria as Ukraine’s foreign minister takes off

“Of course, we don’t know yet what will be the response of Moscow to that,” said Lamola.

“We intend to further communicate with them to convey that message and act as a bridge that must facilitate a peace process for the two countries and our non-alignment position gives us that opportunity to be able to do so.”

Lammy was asked if Britain was concerned that BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — was becoming more hostile to the West by admitting Iran as a member last year and possibly Cuba and Belarus as partners at its recent summit in Kazan, Russia.

Lammy ducked the question, saying, “It is for other countries to determine the groupings and the clubs  that they want to belong to.”

He added, “I did raise my concerns that the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, ie, North Korea] have sent troops to Russia, to fight in Ukraine and that is a matter of huge concern to us, not just in the UK but in Europe, particularly it was a matter raised with me when I was in South Korea just a couple of weeks ago.”

Security Council expansion

It was Lammy’s first visit as foreign secretary to South Africa, where he co-hosted a UK-SA forum with Lamola. He was appointed after the Labour Party defeated the Conservative Party government in the July elections.

Lammy said that “in an increasingly complex global landscape … ensuring that safety of our people is critical”.

He and Lamola had “agreed to deepen our collaboration on defence and security, through defence staff talks and greater collaboration on counter-terrorism in particular”.

He said the UK supported SA’s position that the United Nations Security Council should be expanded to include permanent representation for Africa.

He said Lamola had raised this point “and the UK has had a long-standing position that Africa must be represented on the UN Security Council”.

Read more: Africa’s quest for reform of the UN Security Council is a challenging diplomatic dance

He added that he was keen to better understand if other permanent members of the Security Council shared the UK’s view, “particularly Russia and China, that have been a block on the UN Security Council’s expansion in the past.”

Russia and China rhetorically support Africa and fellow BRICS members Brazil and India being given greater representation on the Security Council. But they have not explicitly backed any other countries getting permanent seats, to add to the five current permanent members — Russia, China, the US, the UK and France.

Lamola told Lammy that southern Africa had recently held several elections.

“In Botswana … the elections were free and fair; in Mozambique, also free and fair, with challenges that emanated after the elections. South Africa will continue to encourage all parties that are concerned to follow the legal route of the Mozambican system, to raise their disputes, and we will call for calm in the area.”

Read more: Mozambique democratic crisis — an urgent call for international solidarity and intervention to protect human rights

Lamola’s view that the Mozambique elections were “free and fair” is not shared by the Mozambican political opposition, which is still protesting vehemently long after the poll and is planning a protest march from all over the country to Maputo, despite fears that the security forces will violently suppress it.

Many election observers have also expressed reservations about the official victory of the ruling Frelimo party’s presidential candidate, Daniel Chapo, and believe opposition candidate Venâncio Mondlane was the real winner. DM