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Russia defends North Korean ballistic missile launch, calls it 'legitimate right'

Published: 08 Nov. 2025, 11:14

A gull flies over the Moskva River as pedestrians walk across Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge located near the Kremlin and Red Square in central Moscow on Oct. 23. [REUTEURS]

Russia defended North Korea's latest launch of a ballistic missile as its "legitimate right," a media report said Friday, in yet another sign of deepening alignment between the two countries.

"We respect the legitimate right of our friends in North Korea to ensure their own security and take the necessary measures to do so," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to Russia's RIA Novosti.

Peskov was also quoted as saying that Russia only welcomes peacekeeping measures on the Korean Peninsula that align with North Korea's interests.

The remarks by the Kremlin official came just hours after South Korea's military said North Korea had launched a suspected short-range ballistic missile toward the East Sea earlier in the day. It marked the North's sixth ballistic missile launch this year.

On Thursday, North Korea slammed the latest U.S. sanctions on eight North Korean individuals and two entities over cybercrime-related money laundering. It vowed to take "proper measures" against the move.

YONHAP