Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that there was “evidence” of North Korean troops being sent to Russia, comments that came a few days after he said the US could confirm claims about the matter.
“There is evidence that there are DPRK troops in Russia,” Austin told reporters in Italy. “What exactly they are doing? Left to be seen. These are things that we need to sort out.”
For its part, North Korea denied that it sent troops to Russia. In response to South Korea’s spy agency claiming 1,500 North Korean troops were sent to Russia, North Korea’s UN envoy said on Monday that it was a “groundless rumor.”
Russia had denied earlier claims from Ukrainian officials that North Korean troops were fighting in Ukraine, which there is no evidence of, something that’s also been acknowledged by NATO.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is now claiming that 10,000 North Korean troops could be preparing to join the fighting in Russia’s Kursk Oblast and is asking NATO to take strong action. Austin said that if North Korea was sending troops for combat, it would be a “very serious issue.”
“If they’re a co-belligerent, their intention is to participate in this war on Russia’s behalf, that is a very, very serious issue, and it will have impacts not only on in Europe — It will also impact things in the Indo-Pacific as well,” Austin said.
South Korea is reportedly considering sending weapons to Ukraine if North Korean soldiers join the war. Seoul has sent artillery shells to Ukraine but indirectly through the US.
The South China Morning Post reported that South Korean opposition lawmakers are warning against taking action related to intelligence that isn’t clear. “There is nothing clear about whether the troops presumably sent by North Korea are combatants or non-combatants, or whether they are soldiers at all,” two opposition lawmakers, Kim Joon-hyung of theRebuilding Korea Party (RKP) and Lee Jae-gang of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), said in a joint statement.
Zelensky is using the claims about North Korean troops to urge his backers to adopt his so-called “Victory Plan,” which calls for significant escalations in military support, including long-range strikes on Russian territory with NATO missiles and NATO countries shooting down Russian missiles and drones over Ukrainian territory.
