The number of North Korean soldiers deployed in the Russian army exceeded 10,000, South Korea said, as the first set of Pyongyang’s troops reportedly came under fire from Ukraine.
The South Korean defence ministry said on Tuesday that a “significant number” of North Korean troops have moved to several frontlines, including in the Ukraine’s Kursk border where the Kremlin’s forces have struggled to repel the Ukrainian offensive.
North Korea, the country with one of the world’s largest militaries of 1.2 million soldiers, has sparked concerns about the widening conflict with dictator Kim Jong-un’s military alliance with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. South Korean officials suggested sending officials to Ukraine to offer intelligence on North Korean battlefield tactics.
Ukraine’s intelligence agency said that about 12,000 North Korean troops including 500 officer-level personnel and three generals were already in Russia.
They are training for combat with Ukrainian forces at five military bases, it said.
“We understand that more than 10,000 North Korean troops are currently in Russia, and a significant number of them have moved to the frontline areas including Kursk,” Jeon Ha-kyou, a spokesperson for Seoul’s defence ministry, told a briefing, citing intelligence authorities.
However, Ms Jeon did not provide details when asked whether the North Koreans were engaged in combat or about a South Korean media report citing an unnamed government official that as many as 40 North Korean troops had been killed on the battlefield.
The estimates put the number higher than what the Pentagon and the US State Department have confirmed yet.
According to the Biden administration, around 10,000 North Korean soldiers are now in Russia’s Kursk to bolster Vladimir Putin’s failed defence against Ukraine’s push in the coming days.
On Monday, a State Department spokesperson said as many as 10,000 North Korean troops are in the Kursk region and could engage in combat in the “coming days”.
“We now assess that as many as 10,000 have made their way to Kursk and could enter combat in the coming days,” Mathew Miller told a press briefing.
When asked if North Korean soldiers are already fighting the Ukrainian army, Mr Miller said he cannot speak definitively about it.
“But as we have said, we expected that it was likely that they would enter into combat against Ukrainian forces,” he said. “And if they did, they would be legitimate military targets.”
An official at Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council on Monday said the first set of North Korean soldiers in Kurks have already come under fire on the border by the Ukrainian forces.
Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the counter-disinformation department at Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said in a Telegram post: “The first military personnel of the DPRK have already come under fire in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation,” referring to North Korea by the acronym for its official title, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres also expressed concerns about deployment of North Korean troops on Russia’s soil, saying it could lead to an “escalation of the war in Ukraine“.
“The Secretary-General is very concerned about reports of troops from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea being sent to the Russian Federation, including their possible deployment to the conflict zone,” said Stephane Dujarric, the UN chief’s spokesperson.
“This would represent a very dangerous escalation of the war in Ukraine. Everything must be done to avoid any internationalisation of this conflict,” he warned in the statement on Sunday.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, urged his country’s allies to act before it is too late and “stop watching”.
“Everyone is just waiting for the North Korean military to start attacking Ukrainians as well,” he said, adding that his troops were preparing to confront a new enemy.
Moscow and Pyongyang have so far denied their military alliance. However, Mr Putin did not deny reports of North Korean soldiers in Russia when confronted at the Brics summits and referred to the strategic partnership treaty between the two countries.
