North Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to Russia to likely fight
against Ukraine, Pentagon says
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[October 29, 2024]
By LORNE COOK and TARA COPP
BRUSSELS (AP) — North Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to Russia to
train and likely fight against Ukraine within “the next several weeks,”
the Pentagon said Monday, in a move that Western leaders say will
intensify the almost three-year war and jolt relations in the
Indo-Pacific region.
Some of the North Korean soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine,
Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said, and were believed to be heading
for the Kursk border region, where Russia has been struggling to push
back a Ukrainian incursion.
Earlier Monday, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte NATO confirmed recent
Ukrainian intelligence reports that some North Korean military units
were already in the Kursk region.
Adding thousands of North Korean soldiers to Europe’s biggest conflict
since World War II will pile more pressure on Ukraine’s weary and
overstretched army. It will also stoke geopolitical tensions in the
Korean Peninsula and the wider Indo-Pacific region, including Japan and
Australia, Western officials say.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is keen to reshape global power
dynamics. He sought to build a counterbalance to Western influence with
a summit of BRICS countries, including the leaders of China and India,
in Russia last week. He has sought direct help for the war from Iran,
which has supplied drones, and North Korea, which has shipped large
amounts of ammunition, according to Western governments.
Rutte told reporters in Brussels that the North Korean deployment
represents “a significant escalation” in Pyongyang's involvement in the
conflict and “a dangerous expansion of Russia’s war.”
U.S. President Joe Biden also called the deployment “dangerous. Very
dangerous.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken
will meet with their South Korean counterparts later this week in
Washington.
Singh said Austin and Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun will discuss the
deployment of North Korean soldiers in Ukraine. There will be no
limitations on the use of U.S.-provided weapons on those forces, Singh
said.
“If we see DPRK troops moving in towards the front lines, they are
co-belligerents in the war,” Singh said, using the acronym for the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or North Korea. “This is a
calculation that North Korea has to make.”
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov shrugged off Rutte’s comments
and noted that Pyongyang and Moscow signed a joint security pact last
June. He stopped short of confirming North Korean soldiers were in
Russia.
Lavrov claimed that Western military instructors long have been covertly
deployed to Ukraine to help its military use long-range weapons provided
by Western partners.
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NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte delivers a statement, after a
meeting with a high level South Korean delegation including top
intelligence and military officials as well as senior diplomats
briefed NATO diplomats, at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Monday,
Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Ukraine, whose defenses are under severe Russian pressure in its
eastern Donetsk region, could get more bleak news from next week’s
U.S. presidential election. A Donald Trump victory could see key
U.S. military help dwindle.
In Moscow, the Defense Ministry announced Monday that Russian troops
have captured the Donetsk village of Tsukuryne — the latest
settlement to succumb to the slow-moving Russian onslaught.
Rutte spoke in Brussels after a high-level South Korean delegation,
including top intelligence and military officials as well as senior
diplomats, briefed the alliance’s 32 national ambassadors at NATO
headquarters.
Rutte said NATO is “actively consulting within the alliance, with
Ukraine, and with our Indo-Pacific partners,” on developments. He
said he was due to talk soon with South Korea’s president and
Ukraine’s defense minister.
“We continue to monitor the situation closely,” he said. He did not
take questions after the statement.
The South Koreans showed no evidence of North Korean troops in
Kursk, according to European officials who were present for the
90-minute exchange and spoke to The Associated Press about the
security briefing on condition of anonymity.
It’s unclear how or when NATO allies might respond to the North
Korean involvement. They could, for example, lift restrictions that
prevent Ukraine from using Western-supplied weapons for long-range
strikes on Russian soil.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, citing intelligence
reports, claimed last Friday that North Korean troops would be on
the battlefield within days.
He previously said his government had information that some 10,000
troops from North Korea were being readied to join Russian forces
fighting against his country.
Days before Zelenskyy spoke, American and South Korean officials
said there was evidence North Korea had dispatched troops to Russia.
___
Copp reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Barry Hatton
in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed to this report.
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