Up to 3,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia for possible deployment in Ukraine, according to the United States government.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said it would be “very, very serious” if the North Koreans were preparing to fight alongside Russia in Ukraine, as Kyiv has alleged. But he said it remained to be seen what they would be doing there.
Speaking in Rome, he said: “There is evidence that there are Democratic People’s Republic of Korea troops are in Russia.”
White House spokesperson John Kirby said the United States believes at least 3,000 North Korean troops are undergoing training at three military bases in eastern Russia.
Kirby said that US believed the North Korean soldiers were transported by ship in early-to-mid October from North Korea’s Wonsan region to the eastern Russian city of Vladivostok before being taken to three military training sites in eastern Russia.
“If they do deploy to fight against Ukraine, they’re fair game,” he said. “They’re fair targets and the Ukrainian military will defend themselves against North Korean soldiers the same way they’re defending themselves against Russian soldiers.”
The South Korean government said that Pyongyang had promised to provide a total of about 10,000 troops, whose deployment was expected to be completed by December.
Park Sun-won, a member of a parliamentary intelligence committee, said: “Signs of troops being trained inside North Korea were detected in September and October.”
The United States said the alleged North Korean deployment could be further evidence that the Russian military was having problems with manpower.
The Kremlin has previously dismissed Seoul’s claims about the North’s troop deployment as “fake news” and a North Korean representative to the United Nations in New York called it “groundless rumours”.
Both Russia and North Korea have also denied weapons transfers, but they have pledged to boost military ties and signed a mutual defence treaty at a summit in June.
The latest numbers came after Seoul’s National Intelligence Service said last week that the North had sent some 1,500 special forces personnel to Russia by ship and they were likely to be deployed for combat in the war in Ukraine after training and acclimatisation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has also accused Pyongyang of preparing to send 10,000 soldiers to Russia. He has alsocalled on his allies to respond to evidence of North Korean involvement in Russia’s war.
NATO allies are consulting on the North Korean deployment to Russia, a NATO spokesperson said.
A Biden administration official said Moscow might send the North Koreans to eastern Ukraine or to its own Kursk region, where Russian troops have been fighting to dislodge Ukrainian forces holding a chunk of territory that they seized in an incursion that began in August.
Mike Turner, the chair of the U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee, said in a statement that U.S. President Joe Biden should allow Kyiv to respond with U.S.-supplied arms if North Korean troops “attack Ukraine from Russian territory.”
“If North Korean troops were to invade Ukraine’s sovereign territory, the United States needs to seriously consider taking direct military action against the North Korean troops,” Turner added.
Lee Seong-kweun, a lawmaker on the South Korean committee, said Pyongyang authorities had tried to keep news of the deployment from spreading.
“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 agency.
Lee also said the agency confirmed that Russia had recruited a large number of interpreters for the North Korean soldiers, while training them in the use of military equipment such as 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 said.
“Therefore, there could be many casualties if they are deployed to the front lines.”
U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say Russia has suffered more than 600,000 killed or wounded troops in the war in Ukraine.