Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has accused Ukraine of asking for nuclear weapons, North Korea’s state news agency KCNA reported on Saturday, citing the country’s online petition, which has so far garnered less than 1,000 signatures. , reports Reuters.

Kim said such a petition could be a political conspiracy by the office of President Volodymyr Zelensky, but did not provide any evidence to support his claim.

Following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement last week that Moscow plans to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, a public petition appeared on the website of the president’s office Thursday calling on Ukraine to deploy nuclear weapons on Ukrainian soil or arm itself with nuclear weapons of its own.

As of Saturday, the petition had collected only 611 signatures, well short of the 25,000 needed for Zelensky to respond. The official bodies of Kyiv have not yet commented on the petition.

North Korea has forged closer ties with the Kremlin amid the West’s shared isolation and backed Moscow’s stance after Russia invaded Ukraine last year, including a later announced annexation of parts of Ukraine that most UN members condemned as illegal. He denied supplying weapons to Moscow.