NATO Chief Claims North Korean Troops Deployed to Russia’s Kursk Region

Zelensky and hawks in the US are calling for major escalations over allegations about North Korean troops in Russia

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte claimed on Monday that North Korean troops have been deployed to Russia’s Kursk Oblast, where Ukrainian forces hold a small piece of territory and are being slowly pushed out by Russian troops.

Rutte did not say the soldiers were involved in combat, but his comments back claims made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about North Korean troops preparing to fight in Kursk, a threat Ukraine has been hyping to gain more support from his Western backers. Rutte previously denied Ukrainian claims that North Koreans were already fighting in the war.

Also on Monday, the US claimed that 10,000 North Korean troops had been sent to Russia and that a “portion” of them have moved closer to Ukraine. “We believe that North Korea has sent around 10,000 total soldiers to train in eastern Russia that will probably augment Russian forces near Ukraine over the next several weeks,” a National Security Council spokesperson told Yonhap News Agency.

North Korea has previously denied it sent troops to Russia, but Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t deny the allegations about North Korean troops being sent to Russian territory when asked about it last week.

According to the Russian news agency TASS, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was asked about the possibility of the West sending troops to Ukraine in response to North Korea’s support for Russia. Without commenting directly on the allegations about North Korean troops, he pointed to the fact that Western military personnel and mercenaries were already involved in the war.

“There are mercenaries and so-called volunteers, as well as instructors, without whom it would be impossible to use not only Western-made long-range weapons but Ukrainian long-range weapons, without these experts and their Western satellite intelligence data, that is, which the Ukrainians obviously don’t have; Ukraine’s troops cannot use missiles without specialists to program the flight paths,” Lavrov said.

Russia and North Korea signed a treaty earlier this year to boost military ties that included a mutual defense clause. Discussing the treaty, Lavrov said, “It in no way violates any international law because it provides, among other things, for mutual support in case either party faces a military attack.”

Zelensky and hawks in the US are calling for major escalations if North Korea gets involved in the fighting in Ukraine. Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, has said if North Korean soldiers attack Ukraine from Russian territory, the US should support long-range strikes inside Russian territory using NATO missiles, an escalation Russian President Vladimir Putin has made clear would risk nuclear war.

Turner also said that if North Korean troops enter Ukraine to fight, the US should consider “direct military action.”

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.