Barricades at a military checkpoint on the Tongil bridge, the road leading to North Korea's Kaesong city, in the border city of Paju, on Oct. 14.JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images
The presence of North Korean troops in Russia, and their potential deployment to the battlefield in Ukraine, “threatens global security,” South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said Thursday, as Seoul considers possible countermeasures to dissuade Moscow from growing any closer to Pyongyang.
On Wednesday, Washington said at least 3,000 North Korean troops had travelled to eastern Russia, where they are undergoing military training. Speaking to reporters, U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said it was a “highly concerning probability” that the soldiers could soon “travel to western Russia and then engage in combat against the Ukrainian military.”
While Mr. Kirby and Western commentators have described the development as a sign of Moscow’s “desperation” as the war drags on and drew attention to the logistical and linguistic difficulties Russia would have integrating North Korean troops into its army, the soldiers’ presence in Russia has greatly alarmed South Korea, which was the first country to ring the alarm about the secret troop movements. It remains unclear if the troops would be led by North Korean officers during any deployment to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s military intelligence service said on Thursday that North Korean units trained in Russia had been deployed in the Kursk region.
“The first units of the military from the DPRK, which were trained at the eastern Russian training grounds, have already arrived in the combat zone of the Russian-Ukrainian war. In particular, on October 23, 2024, their presence was recorded in the Kursk region,” the Ukrainian intelligence agency said in a statement.
With tensions on the Korean Peninsula the highest they have been in years, Seoul fears Moscow may reward Pyongyang for its support with sophisticated weapon technologies that can boost the North’s nuclear and missile programs targeting the South. Since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, South Korean and Western officials say, North Korea has supplied large quantities of ammunition and ballistic missiles to Russia, defying international sanctions and earning hundreds of millions of dollars.
At a background briefing Wednesday, a senior South Korean official told reporters that Seoul was considering diplomatic, economic and military options to deter Moscow from any further engagement with North Korea. South Korea was one of a handful of Asian countries to join U.S.-led sanctions against Russia, but it has not directly sent arms to Ukraine in keeping with its policy of not supplying weapons to countries actively engaged in conflicts – something Seoul has suggested could change in light of the new development.
On Thursday, Mr. Yoon met with his Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda, to finalize a contract to export South Korean K2 Black Panther tanks to Poland. The two countries signed a US$22-billion framework agreement in 2022 for mechanized howitzers, tanks and fighter jets as part of a drive to build up Poland’s military in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said earlier this week that Mr. Yoon was sending a team of experts to Brussels to brief the alliance on the North Korean presence in Russia.
According to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, in addition to the 3,000 or so soldiers, which include members of special forces, senior North Korean officers have also been spotted visiting Russian positions on the front line in Ukraine to provide guidance on firing North Korean missiles.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said a treaty he signed during a visit to North Korea in June included a mutual assistance clause, with each side vowing to help the other to repel foreign aggression. Moscow insists the war in Ukraine was provoked by Kyiv and NATO.
On Thursday, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, the State Duma, voted to ratify the treaty. Mr. Putin said on Thursday that it was Moscow’s business how to implement the partnership treaty with Pyongyang. He did not deny that North Korean troops were currently in Russia.
Russia’s army, while substantially larger than Ukraine’s, has suffered severe losses over the more than two years of fighting, and Ukrainian forces recently carried out daring incursions across the border to seize Russian territory. Moscow has responded to setbacks by unconventional means, such as recruiting from prisons and leaning on the Wagner Group mercenary force for support.
North Korea has one of the largest standing armies in the world, with more than a million personnel, according to the U.S.-based Council on Foreign Relations. It also has a substantial arms manufacturing industry, built up over decades of sanctions, though Pyongyang has relied on foreign assistance in the past for advanced rockets and nuclear devices.
Russia and North Korea have grown far closer since the Ukraine invasion, with Moscow appearing to replace Beijing as Pyongyang’s chief sponsor, offering diplomatic support at the United Nations and pumping funds into the country’s beleaguered economy.
This has left China in an awkward position, with Beijing’s influence over its smaller neighbour – often overstated in the West – appearing to diminish at a time when tensions are ramping up and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s regime is becoming less predictable.
Responding to a question about the North Korean troops Thursday, Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said Beijing “is not aware of the relevant situation.”
“China’s position on Ukraine crisis has always been clear and consistent,” Mr. Lin said. “We hope that all parties will push for de-escalation and strive for a political solution.”
Officials in both Kyiv and the West view this oft-stated stand as hollow, given Beijing’s economic support for Russia, but China is also far less isolated than either Russia or North Korea and has reacted angrily to being lumped in with them at times.
In a statement earlier this week, China’s embassy to the United States condemned those “floating narratives centred on an ‘axis’ involving China,” Russia, North Korea and Iran, which some U.S. politicians have said constitutes a new “axis of evil.”
“China firmly opposes these narratives, as they endanger world peace and harm others without benefiting the U.S. itself,” the embassy said.
With files from Alexandra Li, the Associated Press and Reuters.