The Russian military facility at Ussuriysk, near Vladivostok, where South Korea’s National Intelligence Service reported seeing North Korean military personnel gathered on the training ground, in a satellite image released by Airbus Defence and Space, October 18, 2024. AFP PHOTO / AIRBUS DEFENCE AND SPACE VIA SOUTH KOREA’S NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE SERVICE
NATO and the US on Wednesday, October 23, confirmed for the first time that North Korean troops were indeed deployed in Russia, raising fears of an unprecedented escalation in the war in Ukraine with the direct involvement of a third country. “We are seeing evidence that there are North Korean troops that have gone to Russia,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters on a plane to Italy, where he is due to attend a G7 meeting. “What, exactly, they’re doing is left to be seen,” he added. “If they’re a co-belligerent, their intention is to participate in this war on Russia’s behalf, that is a very, very serious issue.”
A NATO spokesperson in Brussels also confirmed it had evidence of North Korean troops in Russia. “If these troops are destined to fight in Ukraine, it would mark a significant escalation in North Korea’s support for Russia’s illegal war.”
This deployment had been announced a few days earlier by the South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence services. Some 10,000 North Korean troops are to be deployed to Russia by December to help Russian troops fight the Ukrainians, according to Park Sun-won, a member of the parliamentary intelligence committee, after a briefing with South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS). North Korea has already sent 3,000 troops to Russia, spread across several military bases in the Far East, where they receive training in drones and other equipment, the NIS said on Wednesday.
Moscow and Pyongyang deny
Foreigners are already fighting for Russia as mercenaries. But for a foreign government to send regular troops to the war in Ukraine would be a first. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed on Tuesday that North Korean officers and technical personnel had already been spotted on Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, with the aim, presumably, of preparing for the arrival of a larger contingent. “How do they manage them, how do they command them?” the head of state questioned. “I mean, the language barrier. I think it’s a serious challenge.” The presence of North Korean troops in Ukraine has not been confirmed by Western sources.
Ukrainian intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said the first units sent by Pyongyang were due to be deployed as early as Wednesday, October 23, in the Russian Oblast of Kursk, where Ukrainian troops have occupied several hundred square kilometers since their offensive on August 6. This is earlier than originally planned. In mid-October, Budanov had said that North Korean soldiers “would be ready to fight” as early as November 1, with the dispatch of a first group of 2,600 men to the Kursk Oblast.
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