The close relationship between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin is no secret.
The two leaders signed a diplomatic and defense pact on their last face-to-face meeting in June. And North Korea has already provided thousands of containers of munitions to fuel Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Now, the U.S., South Korea and Ukraine say Kim has taken his support for Russia’s war one step farther – sending North Korean troops to fight in Ukraine.
Here’s what we know about reports of North Korean troops deployed to Ukraine.
What is the evidence of North Korean troops fighting in Ukraine?
U.S. officials on Wednesday announced they have evidence North Korea sent 3,000 troops to military bases in Russia.
“We do not yet know whether these soldiers will enter into combat alongside the Russian military, but this is certainly a highly concerning probability,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday he received intelligence indicating Russia would deploy the new troops to combat zones “as early as” October 27 or 28.
“North Korea’s actual involvement in combat should not be met with indifference or uncertain commentary, but with tangible pressure on both Moscow and Pyongyang, to uphold the UN Charter and to hold them accountable for this escalation,” he wrote on X.
Ukraine pegged the number of North Korean soldiers in the country far higher – around 12,000 troops, including 500 officers and three generals, are already spread across five Russian military bases, according to its intelligence service.
The spy agency reported on Thursday that the first North Korean soldiers trained in Russia were deployed to Kursk, an area on the Russian side of Ukraine’s northern border where Ukrainian troops staged an incursion months ago. “Their presence” in the region was first recorded on Wednesday, the agency said.
Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans concurred on Friday, saying the Netherlands had intelligence that Russia deployed at least 1,500 North Korean troops to fight in Ukraine. Russia is hoping to gauge the international reaction to the first deployment, Brekelmans added.
Last week, South Korea said its spy agency uncovered evidence of 1,500 North Korean officers’ arrival in Russia by using facial recognition technology and artificial intelligence to identify them.
Russia’s Kremlin previously denied the reports, branding them as “fake news.”
But Putin on Friday walked back that blanket denial, instead firing back that it is Russia’s “business.”
“When we have to decide something, we will decide… but it is our sovereign decision whether we will apply it, whether we will not, whether we need it,” the Russian president told state media.
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How have world leaders reacted?
Condemnation of the alleged troop movement came swiftly from Ukraine and its allies.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office told Reuters it was investigating whether the troop deployment was grounds to press charges for crimes of aggression against North Korean officials.
At a Thursday summit, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Polish President Andrzej Duda condemned the reports.
The troops’ dispatch “is a provocation that goes beyond the Korean Peninsula and Europe to threaten global security” and constitutes a violation of international law and U.N. resolutions, Yoon said.
Some U.S. lawmakers also chimed in.
Republican Rep. Mike Turner, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, sent a letter to Biden last week calling for the U.S. and NATO to make the troops’ deployment to Ukraine a “red line.”
On Wednesday, he said the U.S. should consider “direct military action” if North Korean troops get involved.
The allegations come amid news that world’s richest person Elon Musk has had regular contact with Putin for nearly two years.
Putin once asked the billionaire tech CEO not to activate internet service over Taiwan via his Starlink satellite company as a favor to Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to a Wall Street Journal report released Thursday.
Musk shipped broadband internet hardware from Starlink to Ukraine days after the country was invaded by Russia in Feb. of 2022.
But questions from Ukraine’s supporters arose after Musk denied the Ukrainian military access to Starlink in 2022, preventing a planned attack on Russian warships.
Musk said on X, “If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation,” Musk said.
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other lawmakers demanded an investigation.
Now, Starlink is also powering Russian troops, which use them to target Ukrainian soldiers with drones and artillery fire, according to reports in the Washington Post. Once a significant advantage for the Ukrainian army, Starlink’s speeds in Ukraine have also dropped off, CNN reported.
Contributing: Reuters