BUDAPEST, January 11. /TASS/. Hungary did not sign the statement sponsored by nearly 50 Western countries condemning the alleged transfer of weapons from North Korea to Russia due to a lack of evidence, Hungarian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mate Paczolay said responding to a request from TASS.
"The positions of Hungary and Slovakia are completely identical," he wrote, responding to a request to comment on Hungary’s position regarding the statement of Western countries, as well as statements on this topic by Slovak Foreign and European Affairs Minister Juraj Blanar.
On January 10, Blanar said that Slovakia had not signed the document due to a lack of evidence but was ready to sign it if evidence was provided.
Earlier, the foreign ministers of 47 countries, including the United States, members of the European Union, as well as a number of their partners, published a joint statement condemning Russia’s alleged purchase of ballistic missiles from North Korea and their use against Ukraine. Hungary and Slovakia were the only EU countries that did not sign this document.
On January 9, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not comment on the White House's statements about Russia's alleged use of missiles from North Korea to strike Ukraine. "We leave it without comment," he told reporters in response to a request to give a statement.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has repeatedly emphasized that Western countries' accusations of illegal military and technical cooperation between Russia and North Korea are unsubstantiated. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier called Washington's claims that Pyongyang was providing military aid to Moscow pure speculation.