The Pentagon said Tuesday a “small number” of North Korean troops have deployed to Russia’s Kursk region, where they are likely to be used in combat against Ukrainian troops.
“[There are] indications that there's already a small number that are actually in the Kursk Oblast, with a couple thousand more that are either almost there or due to arrive imminently,” Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder told reporters.
“We remain concerned that Russia intends to use these soldiers in combat or to support combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Kursk,” he added.
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Defense said that North Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to train in Russia, more than tripling the previous estimate, and warned that those forces would likely augment Russian forces near Ukraine over the next several weeks.
The Pentagon has “no information” to corroborate reports that North Korean troops are also inside Ukraine, according to Ryder.
Asked by VOA whether Ukraine should strike back against North Korean forces, President Joe Biden replied, “If they cross into Ukraine, yes.”
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said Tuesday that military cooperation between North Korea and Russia “poses a significant security threat to the international community.”
The comments at a Cabinet meeting in Seoul followed Yoon saying Monday that the deployment of North Korean troops to the battlefield in Ukraine could happen “more quickly than anticipated,” according to South Korean intelligence assessments.
NATO on Monday had confirmed that 3,000 North Korean troops had been sent to Russia with some deployed to Russia’s Kursk region. Ukrainian troops invaded the border region in a surprise attack in August and still hold territory there.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the deployment of North Korean troops was a sign of "growing desperation" on the part of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Rutte added that more than 600,000 Russian forces have been killed or wounded since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The Pentagon did not provide further details on the type of troops or equipment that North Korea had sent with them. When pressed by VOA Monday on what capabilities these troops could bring, deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said, “It’s additional bodies on the battlefield."
"If we see DPRK troops moving in and towards the front lines, they are co-belligerents in the war,” she warned.
Russia and North Korea have boosted their political and military alliance since Moscow’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin initially dismissed reports about a North Korean troop deployment as "fake news,” but Putin last week did not deny that North Korean troops were currently in Russia, adding that it was up to Moscow to decide how to deploy them as part of a mutual defense security pact that he signed with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June.
At odds with Putin’s comments, a North Korean representative to the United Nations in New York last week characterized the reports of Pyongyang’s deployment of troops in Russia as "groundless rumors."
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will host his South Korean counterpart, Kim Yong-Hyun, on Wednesday at the Pentagon, where the two are expected to discuss the North Korean troops who are now in Russia.
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
