Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the thousands of North Korean soldiers expected to reinforce Russian troops on the front line in Ukraine are pushing the almost three-year war beyond the borders of the warring parties.
Western leaders say North Korea has sent some 10,000 soldiers to help Russia’s military campaign and warn that its involvement in a European war could also unsettle relations in the Indo-Pacific region, including Japan and Australia.
Zelenskyy said on Tuesday he spoke to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and told him that 3,000 North Korean soldiers are already at military bases close to the Ukrainian front line and that he expects that deployment to increase to 12,000.
Pentagon spokesperson Pat Ryder on Tuesday said a “relatively small number” of North Korean troops are now in Russia’s Kursk region, where Russian troops have been struggling to push back a Ukrainian incursion, and a couple thousand more are heading in that direction.
South Korea, which has been in close contact with NATO, the US and the European Union about the latest developments, warned last week that it could send arms to Ukraine in retaliation for the North’s involvement.
There is only one conclusion – this war is internationalised and goes beyond the borders” of Ukraine and Russia, Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.
The Ukrainian president also said he and Yoon agreed to step up their countries’ cooperation and exchange more intelligence, as well as develop concrete responses to Pyongyang’s involvement.
In Washington, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met Tuesday with Zelenskyy’s top adviser to discuss the North Korean troops, as well as a coming surge of weaponry that the US is delivering to Kyiv to help the Ukrainians harden protection of their energy infrastructure, The Associated Press news agency reported, citing White House officials familiar with their private talks.
Sullivan and Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president’s office, shared concerns that North Korean troops could be deployed to Russia’s Kursk region and what such a development could mean for the war.
The officials, who were not authorised to comment publicly, said during the two-hour meeting at the White House, Sullivan also briefed Yermak on President Joe Biden’s plans to push additional artillery systems, ammunition, hundreds of armoured vehicles and more to Ukraine before he leaves office in January.
North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui arrived in Russia’s far east on Tuesday on her way to Moscow, Russian state media said.
Russian state news agencies said it was not clear who Choe, making her second visit in six weeks, would meet.
The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin had no plans to meet her.
What role the North Korean troops may play remains unclear.
“The numbers make this more than a symbolic effort, but the troops will likely be in support roles and constitute less than 1 percent of Russia’s forces,” the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank said in a note.
“Russia is desperate for additional manpower, and this is one element of Russia’s effort to fill the ranks without a second mobilisation,” it added, noting the presence could grow.
Meanwhile, Russian drones, missiles and bombs smashed into Kyiv and Kharkiv, Ukraine’s biggest cities, in nighttime attacks, killing four people and wounding 15 in a continuing aerial onslaught, authorities said Tuesday.
Russia has bombarded civilian areas of Ukraine almost daily since its full-scale invasion of its neighbour, causing thousands of casualties.
The Russian army is also pushing hard against front-line defences in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine. The Russian Defence Ministry claimed that Russian troops captured the Donetsk town of Hirnyk and the villages of Katerynivka, and Bohoiavlenka.