North Korea sent 10,000 Troops to Train in Russia, US says

Seoul has long accused the nuclear-armed North of sending weapons to help Moscow fight Kiev, and after Kim Jong Un signed a mutual defense deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin in June, Pyongyang is alleged to have moved to deploy soldiers en masse.

North Korea has denied sending troops, but in the first comment in state media last week, its vice foreign minister said that if such a deployment were to happen, it would be in line with international law.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that North Korea could "soon" have as many as 12,000 soldiers on Russian soil, while U.S. President Joe Biden slammed the deployment as "very dangerous."

North Korea "has sent around 10,000 soldiers in total to train in eastern Russia that will probably augment Russian forces near Ukraine over the next several weeks," Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told journalists.

The deployment is "a dangerous expansion of Russia's war," NATO chief Mark Rutte said, adding it was "a sign of Putin's growing desperation."

Rutte said more than 600,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded since the conflict started in 2022, adding that the Kremlin was unable to sustain the invasion without foreign support.

Speaking in Brussels after a briefing with South Korean intelligence officials, Rutte confirmed that North Korean military units had been deployed in the field in Russia's western Kursk region.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said Tuesday that growing military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang was "a significant security threat to the international community," and warned that Seoul was considering "countermeasures."

Seoul's spy agency informed lawmakers that even high-ranking North Korean generals "could move to frontline areas," as it highlighted accelerating military cooperation between the two countries.

It also warned that the North was preparing for another satellite launch after a failed attempt in May, "using advanced components and Russian technological assistance," lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun said after an NIS briefing, according to a transcript obtained by AFP.

Experts have suggested that in return for the troops, North Korea is likely aiming to acquire military technology, ranging from surveillance satellites to submarines, along with possible security guarantees from Moscow.

The North is also tightening its domestic clampdown on the spread of information about the Russia deployment, Lee cited from the spy agency, with "families of deployed soldiers being falsely informed that they are in training."

North Korea's foreign minister traveled to Moscow this week, Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday, without providing details.

 Growing threats 

South Korea, a major arms exporter, has previously stated that it would reconsider whether to supply weapons directly to Ukraine, something its Western allies have long called for. Seoul has so far resisted this move due to longstanding domestic policy.

Seoul has already sold billions of dollars worth of tanks, howitzers, attack aircraft, and rocket launchers to Poland, a key ally of Kiev.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen also warned that North Korea sending troops for the first time represented "a significant escalation of the war against Ukraine and threatens global peace."

She made the comments after a phone call with Yoon, during which she assured the leader that "the U.N.'s response to this development will center on cooperation with the Republic of Korea and other like-minded partners."

The United States likewise told China—an ally of both Moscow and Pyongyang—that it should be "concerned about this destabilizing action by two of its neighbors, Russia and North Korea," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

Source: HDN