The US Defense Secretary said Wednesday that there is evidence that North Korea has sent troops to Russia, calling it a “very serious matter” if it joins the war in Ukraine alongside Moscow, and warning of possible consequences.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s intelligence chief told lawmakers that 3,000 North Korean soldiers are now in Russia receiving training on drones and other equipment before being deployed to battlefields in Ukraine.
The United States has not previously officially confirmed North Korea’s sending of troops.
“We are seeing evidence of North Korean forces” going to Russia, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters during a visit to Rome. “What exactly they do – we leave that to be seen.”
He added: “If they are belligerents, their intention is to participate in this war on behalf of Russia, and this is a very serious matter, and it will have implications not only in Europe, but will also affect matters in Europe.” Indo-Pacific.”
He called it the “next step” after North Korea supplied Russia with weapons, and said Pyongyang could face consequences for directly helping Russia. He did not provide details, saying analysts were evaluating the situation.
South Korean intelligence first published reports that the Russian Navy transferred 1,500 North Korean special warfare forces to Russia this month, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his government had intelligence that 10,000 North Korean soldiers were preparing to join invading Russian forces.
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Russia and North Korea denied troop movements. The two countries have significantly strengthened their cooperation in the past two years, and in June they signed a major defense agreement obligating the two countries to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance if either of them is attacked.
South Korean officials are concerned that Russia may reward North Korea by giving it advanced weapons technologies that could boost its nuclear and missile programs targeting South Korea. South Korea said on Tuesday that it would consider supplying weapons to Ukraine in response to news of sending troops.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Tuesday that North Korea sending troops to Ukraine would represent 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 Service Director Cho Tae-yong told lawmakers that another 1,500 North Korean soldiers had entered Russia, according to Rep. Park Sun-won, who attended Cho’s closed-door briefing.
Park told reporters that Cho told lawmakers that his agency estimates that North Korea aims to deploy a total of 10,000 troops in Russia by December.
Park quoted Cho as saying that the 3,000 North Korean soldiers sent to Russia were divided among several military bases. Park said Cho told lawmakers that the NIS believes they have not been deployed into battle yet.
Also speaking at the briefing, lawmaker Lee Seung-kwan said the National Intelligence Service found that the Russian military was teaching these North Korean soldiers how to use military equipment such as drones.
Lee quoted the head of the National Intelligence Service as saying that Russian trainers have high opinions about the morale and physical strength of North Korean soldiers, but believe that they will ultimately suffer heavy losses because they lack an understanding of modern warfare. Russia is recruiting a large number of interpreters, Li said, citing Zhu.
Lee said the National Intelligence Agency had detected indications that North Korea was transferring family members of soldiers selected to be sent to Russia to special sites for isolation. The head of National Intelligence told lawmakers that North Korea has not disclosed sending troops to its own people.
North Korean troops will arrive in Russia’s Kursk region on Wednesday to help Russian forces repel the Ukrainian incursion, the head of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Directorate, Kyrylo Budanov, told online military news outlet The War Zone on Tuesday.
Last week, South Korea’s spy agency said North Korea has sent more than 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles and other conventional weapons to Russia since August 2023 to replenish its dwindling weapons stockpile.
Reports that North Korea is sending troops to Russia have raised security tensions 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 actively involved in conflicts.
North Korea has 1.2 million soldiers, one of the largest standing armies in the world, but it has not been involved in large-scale conflicts since the 1950-1953 Korean War. Experts wonder to what extent North Korean forces are helping Russia, pointing to the lack of combat experience.
Experts say North Korea wants economic support from Russia and its help in modernizing North Korea’s outdated conventional weapons systems as well as transferring high-tech weapons technology.
Following a meeting in London with his German counterpart Boris Pistorius, British Defense Secretary John Healey said it seemed “very likely” that North Korean forces would be deployed in Russia. Pistorius said this highlights the challenges of dealing with international conflicts that are “getting closer and closer together and interconnected.”
—Baldur reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, Ilya Novikov and Hanna Arhirova in Kiev, Ukraine, Danica Kirka in London, and Gary Tanner in Helsinki contributed to this report.
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