The US says there is proof that North Korea has troops in Russia ready to fight in Ukraine

The US said on Wednesday for the first time that it had seen proof of North Korean troops in Russia. Meanwhile, South Korean politicians said that the Kremlin had sent about 3,000 soldiers to help with the war in Ukraine, and more would be sent soon.

Lloyd Austin, the U.S. Defense Secretary, said in Rome that it would be “very, very serious” if North Korea was getting ready to fight with Russia in Ukraine, as Kyiv has said. However, he did not say what they would be doing there.

Austin told reporters, “There is evidence that there are DPRK troops in Russia.” The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is North Korea’s full name.

Lawmakers in Seoul, South Korea, said that North Korea had sent 3,000 troops to Russia and that thousands more were likely to follow.

After being informed by South Korea’s national intelligence agency, the lawmakers told reporters that Pyongyang had promised to send a total of about 10,000 troops. They were expected to be sent out by December.

The 3,000 number is twice as many as what was thought before about how many troops were already in Russia.

In September and October, Park Sun-won, a member of a parliamentary intelligence group, said, “Signs of troops being trained inside North Korea were found.”

“It appears that the troops have now been dispersed to multiple training facilities in Russia and are adapting to the local environment.”

Russia attacked its neighbor in February 2022, starting the conflict in Ukraine. Since then, it has turned into a war of attrition mostly fought along front lines in eastern Ukraine, with a lot of deaths on both sides.

Austin said that the reported move to North Korea could be more proof that the Russian military was having trouble finding enough people to work there.
Previous reports from Seoul about the North’s troop deployment were called “fake news” by the Kremlin. On Monday, a North Korean official to the UN in New York called them “groundless rumors” at a meeting.

Both Moscow and Pyongyang have said they won’t send weapons to each other, but they have promised to improve their military ties and signed a treaty to protect each other at a meeting in June.

The most recent numbers came after Seoul’s National Intelligence Service said on Friday that the North had sent about 1,500 members of its special forces to Russia by ship. After training and getting used to the weather, they were likely to be sent to fight in the war in Ukraine.

Pyongyang is also thought to be planning to send 10,000 soldiers to Russia, according to Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine. On Tuesday, he told his allies to react to proof that North Korea was helping Russia win the war.

ISOLATION OF FAMILIES

Lee Seong-kweun, a member on the South Korean committee, said that the government in Pyongyang had tried to stop people from hearing about the deployment.

“There are also signs of North Korean authorities relocating and isolating those families (of the troops) in a certain place in order to effectively control them and thoroughly crack down on the rumours,” Lee said, citing the spy group.

Lee also said that the agency confirmed that Russia had hired a “large number” of interpreters to work with the North Korean forces and taught them how to use military tools like drones.

“Russian instructors are assessing that the North Korean military has excellent physical attributes and morale but lacks understanding of modern warfare such as drone attacks,” he added.

“Therefore there could be many casualties if they are deployed to the front lines.”

Officials from the United States who did not want to be named said that Russia has lost or hurt more than 600,000 men in the war in Ukraine.

Austin said that the reported deployment in North Korea could mean that there aren’t enough Russian applicants.

“This is an indication that he (Russian President Vladimir Putin) may be even in more trouble than most people realize,” he said.

On Tuesday, the South’s presidential office asked the North to pull its troops out of Russia right away, saying that it might send deadly weapons to Ukraine if military ties between the two countries got too close.

Germany called North Korea’s charge d’affaires in Berlin on Wednesday because they were worried about the movement of troops.

“Should reports be true on North Korean soldiers in Ukraine and should North Korea now be supporting the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine with troops, this would be serious and in violation of international law,” the German government said.

Last week, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said it had been working with Ukraine’s intelligence service and had used facial recognition technology to find North Korean soldiers in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine who were firing North Korean missiles at Russian forces.