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Nato has confirmed North Korea’s troop deployment to the combat zone in western Russia, as it warned that Pyongyang’s involvement in the war in Ukraine constituted a threat to both European and Indo-Pacific security.
“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 said on Monday after a meeting with a delegation from South Korea and representatives from the Indo-Pacific.
The US defense department on Monday confirmed a 10,000-strong deployment of North Korean troops in Russia, after previously saying it was still reviewing information on how many of the nation’s soldiers had been sent to fight on the Ukrainian front. Kyiv had warned earlier this month that some 10,000 North Korean soldiers were about to be deployed.
Rutte described the development as a “significant escalation in the DPRK’s ongoing involvement in Russia’s illegal war” and “a dangerous expansion of Russia’s war”. His comments came after Russian troops pressed further into eastern Ukraine over the weekend, capturing towns and inching closer to the logistical hub of Pokrovsk.
Earlier this month, South Korea released footage showing North Korean soldiers training on Russian soil and being kitted out with Russian military uniforms and weapons.
A contingent of those soldiers has since been transported westward to help Russia’s 50,000-strong force in its operation to retake territory in Kursk region that has been occupied by Ukrainian troops since their surprise incursion in August.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week that North Korean soldiers could be deployed with the Russian army to “combat zones” as soon as October 27 or 28.
Rutte said that Pyongyang had already supplied Moscow with ammunition and ballistic missiles in its fight against Ukraine, and that Russia was in turn aiding North Korea to circumvent international sanctions, including by providing crucial technology.
“The deepening military co-operation between Russia and North Korea is a threat to both the Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic security,” he said, adding: “It undermines peace on the Korean Peninsula and fuels the Russian war against Ukraine.”
But Rutte also said that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s use of foreign fighters was a sign of his inability to make up for the massive war losses.
“The deployment of North Korean troops to Kursk is also a sign of Putin’s growing desperation. Over 600,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in Putin’s war, and he is unable to sustain his assault on Ukraine without foreign support,” Rutte said.
That figure was echoed by Zelenskyy, who said on Monday that Russia’s army had suffered upwards of 650,000 casualties since February 2022.
Ukrainian intelligence officials told the Financial Times on Monday that the deployment of North Korean troops to the frontline signalled that Russia’s recruitment drive was slowing down.
Rutte added that Nato “calls on Russia and the DPRK to cease these actions immediately”.
Andriy Sybiha, Ukraine’s foreign minister, pointed out that Kyiv had been warning “for weeks” that Russia was preparing to deploy North Korean units to the frontline. “We haven’t seen [a] strong response” from western allies, he noted. “The bottom line: listen to Ukraine. The solution: lift restrictions on our long-range strikes against Russia now.”
Kyiv has pleaded with the White House to lift its ban on the use of US long-range weapons across the border, which would then pave the way for the British and French governments to greenlight use of their long-range missiles against targets inside Russia.
Ukrainian military analysts on Monday reported that Russian troops had come within 7km of the strategic city of Pokrovsk, as they stepped up assaults and advanced deeper into Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region over the weekend.
Pokrovsk has served as a key logistics hub for Ukraine’s military and is also home to a vital coal mine that powers the country’s steel industry.
Kurakhove, a city with a thermal power plant 40km south, is also in trouble, the analysts said, with Russian troops now on its eastern edge and heavily shelling its infrastructure.
Additional reporting by Felicia Schwartz in Washington
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