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North Korean soldiers enter Ukraine, officials report
Two western intelligence officials believe a few North Korean soldiers have already infiltrated Ukraine, with expectations of more joining them as they finish training in eastern Russia before reaching the war’s front lines.
The North Korean soldiers in Ukraine exceed what NATO and the Pentagon reported on Monday, that about 10,000 North Korean troops are currently being trained in eastern Russia and some are heading towards Russia’s Kursk region. Ukrainian soldiers have maintained control of land within Kursk since August.
Authoroties Claims
“It seems that a good many of them are already in action,” one of the authorities mentioned on Tuesday, talking about the North Koreans. Last week, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine stated that Ukrainian intelligence predicted the troops would begin entering combat areas on Sunday.
An official from the United States stated that they have not been able to confirm reports that North Korean soldiers are currently in Ukraine. The US was behind in reacting to North Korea’s actions, as US officials did not publicly acknowledge that troops were in Russia until weeks after South Korea first claimed it.
According to State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, US and South Korean diplomatic and military officials are currently in Washington, DC to talk about the deployment and North Korea’s growing ties with Russia.
Andriy Yermak, a high-ranking Ukrainian official, is meeting with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington, DC on Tuesday. Yermak stated that he and Sullivan had a conversation about it “North Korean soldiers whom Russia is preparing for war.”
South Korean officials went to NATO headquarters on Monday and updated allies on North Korean deployments. NATO partners are optimistic that intelligence will prompt South Korea to start offering military assistance to the Ukrainians, going against South Korea’s traditional stance of not supplying weapons to warring nations. However, the president of South Korea has indicated a willingness to modify that approach.
President Yoon Suk Yeol Statement
“While we have maintained our principle of not directly supplying lethal weapons, we can also review our stance more flexibly, depending on the level of North Korean military activities,” Last week, President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea stated.
The extent of assistance North Koreans will provide to Russians in combat remains uncertain. The sources stated that a large number of the deployed troops are special forces, with intelligence reports indicating that the North Korean government perceives them to have greater combat capabilities than regular Russian troops due to their superior training and specialization, according to officials.
However, North Korea’s military has not engaged in a real war in more than seven decades, and experts think the government deployed them mainly to acquire combat skills.
Authorities anticipate that some soldiers will abandon their units upon reaching the battlefield, and they believe that the language barrier with the Russians will pose a major obstacle to carrying out smooth operations. South Korean lawmakers informed the press on Tuesday that Russian trainers are instructing North Korean troops in basic Russian commands during their training, such as “fire” and “in position.”
Russian soldiers are expressing worries over the command, ammunition, and equipment for North Korean soldiers, questioning how to handle them, as heard in intercepted audio by Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence on October 23 from Russian communication channels.
CNN has reported that the intercepts also show intentions to assign one interpreter and three senior officers for every 30 North Korean males.
‘The number may rise’
South Korean intelligence estimates that there are approximately 13,000 North Korean troops currently located in Russia, which is more than the number of troops from the US and the UK. The figure may increase even more – the US has already raised its evaluation from last week, when the White House estimated that around 3,000 North Korean soldiers were in Russia.
“The number may rise,” a third western official said. “Allies and partners across the globe are watching and consulting and will proactively share intelligence on the matter as it affects the security of the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions and beyond.”
A senior NATO official told CNN earlier this month that, besides military personnel, North Korea has supplied Moscow with 11,000 containers of ammunition containing approximately 2 million artillery rounds since last year.
Officials said the US has been pushing China, which has ties to Pyongyang, to step in and compel North Korea to withdraw.
Sullivan “directed the US government to engage the PRC and to organize an effort to get other countries to reach out to the PRC as well over our concerns about DPRK sending troops into Russia and the implications of that,” a US official told CNN, referring to China.
Miller Remarks
“We have communicated with the PRC about this matter to make clear that we are concerned about it, and that they ought to be concerned about this destabilizing action by two of its neighbors, Russia and North Korea,” Miller said.
According to the sources, Western officials do not have high hopes that China will get involved in North Korea’s plans. The NATO official stated that China is still a key supporter of Russia’s military operations, providing significant amounts of dual-use products such as microelectronics and machine tools for weapons production.
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