Western leaders have described the North Korean troop deployment as a significant escalation that could also jolt relations in the Indo-Pacific region. File
| Photo Credit: AP

North Korea’s top diplomat is set to hold talks in Moscow on Wednesday (October 30, 2024) following reports that Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to Russia to support its action in Ukraine.

Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui’s arrival followed the Pentagon’s statement that North Korea has deployed about 10,000 troops to Russia to fight against Ukraine within “the next several weeks.”

Also read: Russia moves to ratify North Korea defence treaty; Seoul issues warning

Major General Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said on Tuesday (October 29, 2024) that a “relatively small number” of North Korean troops are now in the Kursk region, where Russia has struggled to push back a Ukrainian incursion, adding that it’s yet to be seen how Moscow and Pyongyang will use them.

Western leaders have described the North Korean troop deployment as a significant escalation that could also jolt relations in the Indo-Pacific region.

Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang have specified the agenda for Ms. Choe’s talks in Moscow, but in a closed-door hearing at South Korea’s Parliament, the South’s spy agency said Ms. Choe may be involved in high-level discussions on sending additional troops to Russia and negotiating what the North would get in return.

South Korean and Western officials have voiced concern that Russia may offer technology that could advance the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile program.

Moscow and Pyongyang have responded vaguely to South Korean and Western claims of the North Korean troop deployment to Russia, emphasizing that their military cooperation conforms with international law, without directly admitting the presence of the North’s forces in Russia.

The U.S. and its allies have also accused North Korea of providing millions of artillery shells and other equipment to Russia to fuel its military action in Ukraine.

Russia, along with China, has blocked U.S.-led efforts at the Security Council to tighten sanctions on North Korea over its recent missile testing, which intensified after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russia also vetoed a U.N. resolution to extend the mandate of monitors in March, in a move that effectively abolished oversight by U.N. experts of Security Council sanctions against North Korea.

In a telephone conversation on Tuesday (October 29, 2024) with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said deepening military cooperation between North Korea and Russia could pose a “major security threat” to Seoul if the North gains access to Russian technology and its troops get combat experience.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol last week raised the possibility of supplying Ukraine with weapons while saying Seoul is preparing countermeasures that could be rolled out in stages depending on the degree of military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.

South Korea, a growing arms exporter, has provided humanitarian aid and other non-lethal support to Ukraine and joined U.S.-led economic sanctions against Moscow. It has so far resisted calls by Kyiv and NATO to directly supply Ukraine with weapons, citing a longstanding policy of not providing arms to countries engaged in active conflict.

Members of the Korean Veterans Association stage a rally against a recent deployment of North Korean troops to Russia, near the Russian Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. Yellow banners read, “Stop the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia.”
| Photo Credit: AP

NATO on Monday (October 28, 2024) confirmed that North Korean troops have been sent to Russia to aid in its almost three-year war against Ukraine and that some have already been deployed in Russia’s Kursk border region, where Russia has been struggling to push back a Ukrainian incursion.

“Today, I can confirm that North Korean troops have been sent to Russia, and that North Korean military units have been deployed to the Kursk region,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told reporters.

Also read: Russia moves to ratify North Korea defence treaty; Seoul issues warning

Mr. Rutte said that the move represents “a significant escalation” in North Korea’s involvement in the conflict and marks “a dangerous expansion of Russia’s war.”

His remarks came 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 in Brussels.

Mr. Rutte said NATO is “actively consulting within the alliance, with Ukraine, and with our Indo-Pacific partners,” on developments and that he is due to talk soon with South Korea’s president and Ukraine’s defence minister. “We continue to monitor the situation closely,” he said.

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, as well as stoking 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.

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 has information that some 10,000 troops from North Korea were being readied to join Russian forces fighting against his country.

Days before Mr. Zelenskyy spoke, American and South Korean officials said there was evidence North Korea had dispatched troops to Russia.

The U.S. said around 3,000 North Korean troops had been deployed to Russia for training.

US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin. File
| Photo Credit: AP

U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday (October 23, 2024) said that there is evidence that North Korea has sent troops to Russia and South Korea’s spy chief told lawmakers that 3,000 North Korean troops are in the country receiving training on drones and other equipment before being deployed to battlefields in Ukraine.

Mr. Austin told reporters “What exactly they are doing? Left to be seen. These are things that we need to sort out,” according to a video posted by the Washington Post.

If the troops join the war in Ukraine on Russia’s side, it will be “a very, very serious issue,” Mr. Austin said, adding it would have an impact in Europe and in the Indo-Pacific region.

South Korean intelligence first publicised reports that the Russian navy had taken 1,500 North Korean special warfare troops to Russia last week, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had earlier said his government had intelligence that 10,000 North Korea soldiers were being prepared to join the invading Russian forces.

The U.S. and NATO had not previously formally confirmed North Korea’s reported troop dispatch, but have warned of the danger of such a development if true. Russia and North Korea have so far denied the troop movements.