October 28, 2024
SEOUL – Growing indications suggest that North Korean troops are on the brink of deployment to support Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine, as North Korean soldiers have reportedly arrived in Russia’s Kursk region, where Russian and Ukrainian forces have been battling for control of key strategic border location.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that Russia is expected to deploy the first contingent of North Korean soldiers to combat zones as early as Sunday and Monday, based on an intelligence report from Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander in chief of the Ukraine armed forces.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense’s Main Directorate of Intelligence reported Thursday that the first units of North Korean military personnel, trained at Russian training grounds in the east, have already arrived in the combat zone of the Russia-Ukraine war. The presence of North Korean troops was recorded in the Kursk region Wednesday, according to the military intelligence agency.
Kursk, in southwestern Russia, has been a contested border area where Ukrainian forces have been engaged since early August.
Growing indications suggest that North Korean troops are on the brink of deployment to support Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine, as North Korean soldiers have reportedly arrived in Russia’s Kursk region, where Russian and Ukrainian forces have been battling for control of key strategic border location.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that Russia is expected to deploy the first contingent of North Korean soldiers to combat zones as early as Sunday and Monday, based on an intelligence report from Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander in chief of the Ukraine armed forces.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense’s Main Directorate of Intelligence reported Thursday that the first units of North Korean military personnel, trained at Russian training grounds in the east, have already arrived in the combat zone of the Russia-Ukraine war. The presence of North Korean troops was recorded in the Kursk region Wednesday, according to the military intelligence agency.
Kursk, in southwestern Russia, has been a contested border area where Ukrainian forces have been engaged since early August.
Seoul to meet Washington, NATO
This week, the South Korean government is expediting consultations with the US and NATO in response to the issue.
South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are scheduled to hold the Security Consultative Meeting, annual defense-ministerial dialogue between the treaty allies, on Oct. 30 in Washington. According to South Korea’s Defense Ministry, the talks will address key defense issues, including North Korea’s dispatch of troops to Russia.
The South Korean government delegation is set to brief the North Atlantic Council at NATO headquarters on Monday, updating ambassadors from 32 member countries on developments related to North Korea’s troop deployment to Russia, the NIS announced Friday. Following this, the delegation will deliver a related briefing to the European Union’s Political and Security Committee.
South Korea’s national security adviser Shin Won-sik also met with his US and Japanese counterparts, Jake Sullivan and Takeo Akiba, in Washington on Friday. The three “expressed grave concern” over North Korea’s troop deployments to Russia, “potentially for use on the battlefield against Ukraine,” according to a White House press statement.
Both Moscow and Pyongyang have adopted a stance of neither confirming nor denying North Korean troops dispatched to Russia.
President Vladimir Putin said Friday on Rossiya-1 TV channel that it is “entirely our own business” between Moscow and Pyongyang whether and how to apply the military assistance article of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty. Russia’s State Duma ratified the treaty Thursday.
In June, Putin and Kim signed the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, which includes Article 4 that stipulates both countries to “provide military and other assistance using all means at its disposal without delay” if either party enters a state of war due to a military invasion by one or more countries.
Kim Jong-gyu, North Korea’s vice foreign minister in charge of Russian affairs, said Friday that the country’s Foreign Ministry “does not feel the need to confirm it separately” in a statement responding to what he labeled as the “rumor of the dispatch of KPA troops to Russia.”
“If there is such a thing that the world media is talking about, I think it will be an act conforming with the regulations of international law,” the statement read.