Updated on Nov. 13, 2024 at 5:35 a.m. ET
TAIPEI, Taiwan – The United States and South Korea confirmed that North Korean troops have been in combat against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, as China declined to comment on military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang saying it was their affair.
The U.S. confirmation that the North Koreans were in combat, by Vedant Patel, principal deputy spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, will compound concerns that their deployment to help Russia fight its war against Ukraine risks ramping up the dangers from Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II.
“Today, I can confirm that over 10,000 DPRK soldiers have been sent to eastern Russia, and most of them have moved to far western Kursk Oblast, where they have begun engaging in combat operations with Russian forces,” Patel told a press briefing on Tuesday.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK, is North Korea’s official name.
“Some of the challenges they would need to overcome are interoperability, the language barrier, command and control and communications,” Patel said, adding that Russian forces have been training North Korean troops in artillery, unmanned aerial vehicle and basic infantry operations, including trench clearing operations.
“The United States is consulting closely with our allies and partners in other countries in the region on the implications of this, on these developments,” he added.
South Korea’s main security agency also confirmed that the North Koreans were “already engaging in combat operations” against Ukraine in Kursk.
Separately, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Russia’s growing economic and military cooperation with China, North Korea and Iran was threatening Europe, the Indo-Pacific and North America, stressing the importance of transatlantic unity and continued support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.
“We need to raise the cost for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and his enabling authoritarian threats by providing Ukraine with the support it needs to change the trajectory of the conflict,” said Rutte.
“We must recommit to stay the course of the war and we must do more than just keep Ukraine in the fight.”
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that Ukrainian forces were holding off nearly 50,000 troops, including 11,000 North Koreans, in Kursk.
Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into Russia’s southwestern Kursk region on Aug. 6 and have captured more than two dozen settlements there, according to Ukraine. While Russia has managed to reclaim some settlements, the front line has seen little change in recent months.
The Kremlin has not commented on the presence of North Korean troops on its territory. At a meeting of the U.N. Security Council last week, Russia declined to answer questions from the United States about its deployment of North Koreans.
‘Matter for themselves’
China’s foreign ministry, asked to comment on a military cooperation pact between Russia and North Korea, reaffirmed Beijing’s stance that the development of their relations was solely a matter for them to decide.
“The DPRK and Russia are two independent sovereign states. How to develop their bilateral relations is a matter for themselves,” said the ministry spokesperson Lin Jian on Tuesday, without commenting on reports about North Koreans troops in Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a landmark treaty on a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership” on June 19 in Pyongyang after summit talks, which includes a mutual defense assistance clause that applies in the case of “aggression” against either of the signatories.
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China, one of North Korea’s few traditional allies, has recently been under growing pressure to serve as a responsible stakeholder as the U.S. and its allies worry that the deployment of said North Korean troops will dangerously escalate the Ukrainian war.
The U.S. said in October that it had voiced concern to China over “destabilizing” actions by North Korea and Russia.
“We have been making clear to China for some time that they have an influential voice in the region, and they should be concerned about steps that Russia has taken to undermine stability. They should be concerned about steps that North Korea has taken to undermine stability and security,” said the U.S. State Department’s spokesperson Matthew Miller at that time.
Miller’s remarks came about a week after the Chinese foreign ministry said it did not have information on the North’s troop deployment to Russia and called for a multilateral solution to the conflict.
Edited by Mike Firn.
Updated to include South Korean confirmation.