The US defense secretary said on Wednesday there was evidence that North Korea had sent troops to Russia, calling it a “very serious matter” if it joined the war in Ukraine on Moscow’s side and warning of possible consequences.
South Korea’s intelligence chief, meanwhile, told lawmakers that 3,000 North Korean soldiers are now in Russia receiving training on drones and other equipment before being sent to the battlefields in Ukraine.
The US has not officially confirmed the North Korean military report.
“We are seeing evidence that there are North Korean soldiers” who have gone to Russia, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters during a visit to Rome. “What exactly they do – remains to be seen.”
He added: “If they are rebels, their intention is to participate in this war on behalf of Russia, that is a very serious problem, and it will have an impact not only in Europe, it will also have an impact on things in the country. The Indo-Pacific.”
He called it the “next step” after the North gave Russia weapons, and said Pyongyang could face consequences for helping Russia directly. He did not release details, but said that analysts are assessing the situation.
South Korean intelligence first circulated reports that the Russian navy had taken 1,500 North Korean soldiers to Russia this month, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his government had intelligence that 10,000 North Korean soldiers were ready to join the invading Russian army.
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Russia and North Korea have denied the military move. They have greatly increased their cooperation in the past two years, and in June they signed a major defense agreement that requires both countries to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance in the event of an attack.
South Korean officials are concerned that Russia may reward North Korea by providing it with sophisticated weapons technology that could improve its nuclear and missile programs aimed at South Korea. South Korea said on Tuesday it would consider supplying weapons to Ukraine in response to the military deployment.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Tuesday that sending North Korean troops to Ukraine would mark a “major escalation,” and said he had asked South Korea’s president to send experts to Brussels next week to brief the military alliance.
On Wednesday, South Korea’s National Intelligence Director Cho Tae-yong told law enforcement that some 1,500 North Korean soldiers have entered Russia, according to lawyer Park Sunwon, who attended Cho’s briefing.
Cho told lawmakers that his organization had investigated whether North Korea intended to deploy 10,000 troops to Russia in December, Park told reporters.
Park quoted Cho as saying that the 3,000 North Korean soldiers sent to Russia are split between multiple military bases. Cho told lawmakers that the NIS believed they had yet to be sent into combat, Park said.
Speaking jointly at the forum, lawyer Lee Seong Kweun said that the NIS had discovered that the Russian military was teaching those North Korean soldiers how to use military weapons such as drones.
Lee quoted an NIS official as saying that Russian instructors have high opinions about the morale and strength of North Korea’s military but think they will eventually face serious problems because they do not understand modern warfare. Lee, quoting Cho, said Russia employs a large number of interpreters.
Lee said the NIS has received indications that North Korea is moving family members of soldiers selected for deployment to Russia to special facilities to separate them. An NIS official told lawmakers that North Korea has not disclosed military deployments to its own people.
The head of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Directorate, Kyrylo Budanov, told the online military news outlet The War Zone on Tuesday that North Korean troops will arrive in Russia’s Kursk region on Wednesday to help Russian troops fight an invasion of Ukraine.
Last week, South Korea’s intelligence agency said North Korea had shipped more than 13,000 containers of weapons, missiles and other conventional weapons to Russia since August 2023 to replenish its dwindling arsenal.
Reports that the North is sending troops to Russia have heightened security in South Korea. It has shipped humanitarian and financial support to Ukraine, but has so far avoided directly supplying weapons in line with its policy of not supplying weapons to countries that are actively involved in the conflict.
North Korea has 1.2 million soldiers, one of the largest armies in the world, but has not fought in a major conflict since the 1950-53 Korean War. Experts question how much North Korean troops can help Russia, citing a lack of military experience.
Experts say North Korea wants Russia’s economic support and help in modernizing the North’s conventional weapons systems and transferring high-tech weapons.
After a meeting in London with his German counterpart Boris Pistorius, UK Defense Secretary John Healey said it looked “highly possible” that North Korean troops would be sent to Russia. Pistorius said it underscores the challenges of dealing with international conflicts that are “increasingly close and interconnected.”
–Baldor reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, Illia Novikov and Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine, Danica Kirka in London and Jari Tanner in Helsinki contributed to this report.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
