South Korea warned Tuesday it could consider supplying weapons to Ukraine in response to North Korea allegedly dispatching troops to Russia, as both North Korea and Russia denied the movements.

The South Korean statement is apparently meant to pressure Russia not to bring in North Korean troops in its war against Ukraine. South Korean officials worry that Russia may reward North Korea by giving it sophisticated weapons technologies that can boost the North’s nuclear and missile programs that target South Korea.

In an emergency National Security Council meeting, top South Korean officials condemned North Korea’s alleged dispatch of troops as “a grave security threat” to South Korea and the international community. They described North Korea as “a criminal group” that forces its youths to serve as Russian mercenaries for an unjustifiable war, the South Korean presidential office said in a statement.

The officials agreed to take phased countermeasures, linking the level of their responses to progress in Russian-North Korean military cooperation, according to the statement.

Possible steps include diplomatic, economic and military options, and South Korea could consider sending both defensive and offensive weapons to Ukraine, a senior South Korean presidential official told reporters on condition of anonymity in a background briefing.

The official said North Korea could attempt to get high-tech Russian technologies to perfect its nuclear missiles. The official said Russia’s possible help for North Korea’s efforts to modernize its outdated conventional weapons systems and acquire a space-based surveillance system would pose a serious security threat to South Korea as well.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, South Korea has joined U.S.-led sanctions against Moscow and shipped humanitarian and financial support to Kyiv. But it has avoided directly supplying arms to Ukraine in line with its policy of not supplying weapons to countries actively engaged in conflicts.

South Korea’s spy agency said last week it had confirmed that North Korea sent 1,500 special operation forces to Russia this month. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said his government had intelligence that 10,000 North Korea soldiers were being prepared to join invading Russian forces.

North Korea and Russia have been sharply boosting their cooperation in the past two years. In June, they signed a major defense deal requiring both countries to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance if either is attacked. South Korea said at the time it would consider sending arms to Ukraine, a similar statement that it made Tuesday.

South Korea’s spy agency said that North Korea had sent more than 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles and other conventional arms to Russia since August 2023 to replenish its dwindling weapons stockpiles.

North Korea and Russia have denied the North Korean troop deployment as well as the purported weapons transfer.

At a U.N. Security Council meeting Monday, Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia dismissed the South Korean assertion as well as Western allegations of Iran supplying Russia with missiles and China providing arms components. He accused the West of “circulating scaremongering with Iranian, Chinese and Korean bogeymen, each one of which is more absurd than the one before.”

At a separate U.N. committee meeting, a North Korean diplomat said his delegation feels no need to comment on the troop dispatch, calling it “groundless, stereotype rumors aimed at smearing the image” of the North and undermining the legitimate cooperation between two sovereign states.

Also Tuesday, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called South Korean and Ukraine governments “lunatics” as she slammed them for making “reckless remarks against nuclear weapons states.”

The U.S. and NATO haven’t confirmed North Korea’s troop deployment, but they warned against the danger of such a development if true.

U.S. deputy ambassador to the U.N. Robert Wood said that if true, the North Korean troop dispatch marks “a dangerous and highly concerning development” and noted that the U.S. was “consulting with our allies and partners on such a dramatic move.”

Lee Hsien Yang, the estranged brother of former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said Tuesday that he’s now a “political refugee” after the U.K. government granted him asylum from what he described as persecution at home.

The Lee brothers are the sons of Lee Kuan Yew, modern Singapore’s founding father. They have been engaged in a public spat since 2017 over the late patriarch’s family home, and Lee Hsien Yang has accused Singapore’s government of persecuting him, his wife and his son.

In a Facebook post Tuesday, he said that he sought asylum protection in 2022 “as a last resort.”

“The Singapore government’s attacks against me are in the public record. They prosecuted my son, brought disciplinary proceedings against my wife, and launched a bogus police investigation that has dragged on for years,” he wrote. “On the basis of these facts, the U.K. has determined that I face a well-founded risk of persecution and cannot safely return to Singapore.”

“I remain a Singapore citizen and hope that someday it will become safe to return home,” he added.

The Guardian published an interview with Lee Hsien Yang on Tuesday in which he strongly criticized the Singapore government and alleged it facilitated money laundering.

“People need to look beyond Singapore’s bold, false assertions and see what the reality really is like,” he was quoted as saying. “There is a need for the world to look more closely, to see Singapore’s role as that key facilitator for arms trades, for dirty money, for drug monies, crypto money.”

The Singapore government said in a statement there was no basis to the allegations in the Guardian’s report. The city-state has a “robust system to deter and tackle money laundering and other illicit financial flows, which is consistent with international standards,” it said.

“In Singapore, no one is above the law. Anyone, including the offspring of the founding prime minister, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, can be investigated and brought before the courts,” it added.

Lee Hsien Yang and his sister, Lee Wei Ling, who died earlier this month, accuse their eldest brother of abusing his power to stop them from demolishing the family home according to the wishes of their father, who died in 2015 after leading Singapore with an iron grip for more than three decades.

The family feud saw Lee Hsien Yang and his wife entangled in official investigations over allegations that the pair provided false evidence in judicial proceedings regarding Lee Kuan Yew’s will.

Lee Hsien Loong stepped down in May after two decades at the helm. He handed power to his deputy, Lawrence Wong, but still holds a Cabinet post as senior minister.

The U.K. Home Office didn’t immediately comment when asked about Lee Hsien Yang’s asylum status.

Hundreds gathered Monday to mourn Catholic priest Marcelo Pérez, an activist for Indigenous peoples and farm laborers who was killed in the southern Mexico state of Chiapas.

It was a killing that many say was a tragedy foretold, in a state where drug cartels have caused thousands of people to flee their homes.

Mourners gathered in San Andres Larrainzar, near the city of San Cristobal de las Casas, where Pérez was killed on Sunday.

Pérez, a leading activist for peace in the violence-torn state, was from San Andrés Larrainzar. A mass in his honor Monday was held in Spanish and Tzotzil, the Indigenous language he spoke.

Pérez, 50, had often received threats, but nonetheless continued to work as a peace activist. Human rights advocates said Pérez did not receive the government protection he needed.

“For years, we insisted that the Mexican government should address the threats and aggressions against him, but they never implemented measures to guarantee his life, security and well-being,” The Fray Bartolome de las Casas human rights center wrote.

While there was no immediate information on the killers — President Claudia Sheinbaum only said that “investigations are being carried out” — Rev. Pérez’s peace and mediation efforts may have angered one of the two drug cartels that are currently fighting for control of Chiapas.

The state is a lucrative route for smuggling both drugs and migrants.

“Father Marcelo Pérez was the subject of constant threats and aggressions on the part of organized crime groups,” according to the rights center, adding that his killing “occurred in the context of a serious escalation of violence against the public in all the regions of Chiapas.”

For at least the last two years, the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels have been engaged in bloody turf battles that involve killing whole families, and forcing villagers to take sides in the dispute. Hundreds of Chiapas residents have had to flee to neighboring Guatemala for their own safety.

“They should look for an intelligent way to disarm those groups,” said Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi, who once served as the bishop for the area. “They shouldn’t wait for people to file complaints, and people are going to file complaints because their lives are at risk.”

Together with continued drug violence in the northern state of Sinaloa, and the army killings of six migrants earlier this month, the killing of Pérez was another embarrassment for the government.

Sheinbaum took office Oct. 1 and has pledged to follow the policy of her predecessor and mentor, former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, of not confronting the drug cartels. The policy has failed to significantly reduce violence.

“This is a reflection of the whole country,” Cardinal Arizmendi said following the mass for Pérez. “They shouldn’t say everything is fine in Mexico. Please.” he continued. “This strategy has not worked.”

The state prosecutors’ office said Rev. Pérez was shot dead by two gunmen when he was in his van, just after he had finished celebrating Mass.

He served in the community for two decades and was known as a negotiator in conflicts in a mountainous region of Chiapas where crime, violence and land disputes are rife. Pérez also led several marches against violence, which has brought him several death threats.

The U.N. Human Rights Office said Pérez was the seventh human rights activist killed in Mexico so far in 2024.