US Defence Secretary confirms North Korea has sent troops to Russia

Hyung-Jin Kim, AP

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said there is evidence that North Korea sent troops to Russia on Monday.

He spoke after South Korea’s spy chief told legislators that 3,000 North Korean troops are in the country receiving training on drones and other equipment before being deployed to battlefields in Ukraine.

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

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.

Special warfare troops

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 Zelensky had earlier said his government had intelligence that 10,000 North Korea soldiers were being prepared to join the invading Russian forces.

The US 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.

South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director Cho Tae-yong told legislators that another 1,500 North Korean troops have entered Russia in a closed-door meeting, according to Park Sunwon, who attended the briefing.

10,000 troops

Mr Cho said his agency assessed that North Korea aims to deploy a total of 10,000 troops to Russia by December.

Mr Park cited Mr Cho as saying the 3,000 North Korean soldiers sent to Russia have been split among multiple military bases and are in training. Mr Cho also said the NIS believes they have yet to be deployed in battle.

Fellow legislator Lee Seong Kweun said that the NIS found that the Russian military is now teaching those North Korean soldiers how to use military equipment such as drones.

Mr Lee cited the NIS chief as saying Russian instructors have high opinions of the morale and physical strength of the North Korean soldiers but think they will eventually suffer heavy causalities because they lack an understanding of modern warfare. Russia is also said to be recruiting a large number of interpreters.

Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Directorate head, Kyrylo Budanov, told the online military news outlet The War Zone that North Korean troops will arrive to Russia’s Kursk region on Wednesday to help Russian troops fighting off a Ukrainian incursion.

Defence deal

North Korea and Russia, embroiled in separate confrontations with the West, have been sharply boosting their cooperation in the past two years.

In June, they signed a major defence deal requiring both countries to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance if either is attacked.

The NIS said last week that North Korea had sent more than 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles and other conventional arms to Russia since August 2023 to replenish its dwindling weapons stockpiles.

Reports that the North is sending troops to Russia stoked security jitters in South Korea. South Korean officials worry that Russia may reward North Korea by giving it sophisticated weapons technologies that could boost the North’s nuclear and missile programmes that target South Korea.

North Korea has 1.2 million troops, one of the largest standing armies in the world, but it has not fought in large-scale conflicts since the 1950-53 Korean War.

Many experts question how much North Korean troops would help Russia, citing a shortage of battle experience. They say North Korea wants to get Russian economic support and its help to modernise the North’s outdated conventional weapons systems as well as its high-tech weapons technology transfers.