The U.S. has said North Korean troops may have been deployed to a critical front in Russia’s war against Ukraine as speculation grows over how the international community may respond to a third party entering combat.
The U.S. confirmed on October 23 that Pyongyang was joining Russia’s war against Ukraine, a claim made days earlier by Ukraine and South Korea. There remains uncertainty, however, over what role troops from the secretive state may play.
John Kirby, a spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council, said Friday, “It is certainly possible, and I’d just go so far as to say perhaps even likely, that at least some of these North Korean troops could be deployed to the Kursk area.”
On August 6, Ukraine staged an incursion against Russia in Kursk. A group of North Korean soldiers have been spotted in Russia’s Kursk region, an area that borders Ukraine and has seen ongoing military operations, Ukraine’s military intelligence service announced Thursday.
In a post on its official Telegram account, the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine said some North Korean troops, who had received training in Russia’s far east, have made their way to the western Russia region, where Ukraine has maintained a foothold since launching an incursion in August.
The intelligence service said the troops had been seen in Kursk on Wednesday. It added that the roughly 12,000 North Korean soldiers that have been deployed to Russia are receiving training at five military training grounds in the country’s east.
On the day Kirby made his remarks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that North Korean troops could be deployed to unspecified combat zones as early as Sunday.
“This is an obvious escalatory step by Russia,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram. He added, “That is why a principled and strong response from world leaders is needed.”
Tetiana Hranchak, a visiting assistant teaching professor at the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, said: “North Korean troops in Ukraine would be another confirmation that the Russian war in Ukraine is not a local or regional conflict.”
“Along with the intensification of military operations in the Middle East using the terrorist group Hamas, this is an additional confirmation of the anti-Western axis formed by Russia, which includes China and Iran in addition to North Korea,” she told Newsweek.
North Korean soldiers are training in Vladivostok, and 10,000 will be dispatched to fight Ukraine following a month of training, Bloomberg reported, citing South Korean intelligence.
While the U.S. has not confirmed South Korean reports that the North Korean soldiers will fight on the battlefield, unnamed officials told The Wall Street Journal that thousands could be sent and thrust into a combat role.
Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that his country’s intelligence believed that at least 1,500 North Korean troops had been deployed to Kursk.
Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence previously reported that the first North Korean military units that had trained in eastern Russia had been seen in the war zone on October 23.
However, a Ukrainian air assault brigade operating in the area said no North Korean forces had been detected and that they did not have experience fighting in large-scale, technologically driven wars.
Putin has not denied the reports that satellite imagery backed up the claims, saying, “If there are images, they reflect something.” North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said any decision to send its troops to support Russia would comply with international law. It did not confirm whether there had been a deployment.
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