By In a move that Western leaders say will intensify the nearly three-year war in Ukraine and jolt relations in the Indo-Pacific region, the Pentagon has confirmed that North Korea has sent approximately 10,000 troops to Russia to train and fight within “the next several weeks.”
Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh revealed on Monday that some of the North Korean soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine and are believed to be heading for the Kursk border region, where Russia has been struggling to push back a Ukrainian incursion. Earlier in the day, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte confirmed recent Ukrainian intelligence reports that some North Korean military units were already in the Kursk region.
The addition of thousands of North Korean soldiers to Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II is expected to put more pressure on Ukraine’s weary and overstretched army. It will also stoke geopolitical tensions in the Korean Peninsula and the wider Indo-Pacific region, including Japan and Australia, according to Western officials.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is keen to reshape global power dynamics, sought to build a counterbalance to Western influence with a summit of BRICS countries, including the leaders of China and India, in Russia last week. He has also sought direct help for the war from Iran, which has supplied drones, and North Korea, which has shipped large amounts of ammunition, according to Western governments.
NATO Secretary-General Rutte told reporters in Brussels that the North Korean deployment represents “a significant escalation” in Pyongyang’s involvement in the conflict and “a dangerous expansion of Russia’s war.” U.S. President Joe Biden echoed this sentiment, calling the deployment “dangerous. Very dangerous.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken are set to meet with their South Korean counterparts later this week in Washington. Singh said Austin and Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun will discuss the deployment of North Korean soldiers in Ukraine, and there will be no limitations on the use of U.S.-provided weapons on those forces.
“If we see DPRK troops moving in towards the front lines, they are co-belligerents in the war,” Singh said, using the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or North Korea. “This is a calculation that North Korea has to make.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov shrugged off Rutte’s comments, noting that Pyongyang and Moscow signed a joint security pact last June, but stopped short of confirming the presence of North Korean soldiers in Russia. He claimed that Western military instructors have long been covertly deployed to Ukraine to help its military use long-range weapons provided by Western partners.
Ukraine, whose defenses are under severe Russian pressure in its eastern Donetsk region, could face further setbacks if the upcoming U.S. presidential election results in a Donald Trump victory, which could lead to a reduction in key U.S. military assistance.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Monday that its troops have captured the Donetsk village of Tsukuryne, the latest settlement to succumb to the slow-moving Russian onslaught.
Rutte’s statement in Brussels came after a high-level South Korean delegation, including top intelligence and military officials as well as senior diplomats, briefed NATO’s 32 national ambassadors at the alliance’s headquarters. European officials who were present for the 90-minute exchange said the South Koreans showed no evidence of North Korean troops in Kursk.
It remains unclear how or when NATO allies might respond to the North Korean involvement, but they could potentially lift restrictions that prevent Ukraine from using Western-supplied weapons for long-range strikes on Russian soil.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, citing intelligence reports, claimed last Friday that North Korean troops would be on the battlefield within days, having previously stated that his government had information that some 10,000 troops from North Korea were being readied to join Russian forces fighting against his country.
