The U.S. government suspects the North Korean military may attack Ukrainian troops in Russia soon. The regime will not confirm its plans but is defending its right to deploy.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby on Thursday corroborated warnings by Ukrainian intelligence that approximately 3,000 North Korean troops could be moving into the Kursk region of Russia, which is currently held by Ukrainian forces.
“We believe that it is certainly possible, and I just go so far as to say, perhaps even likely, that at least some of these North Korean troops could be deployed to the Kursk area,” Kirby told the press.
The White House spokesman warned that the North Korean military, known as the Korean People’s Army, entering the conflict as belligerents would make its soldiers a legitimate target of Ukrainian strikes.
“If they do deploy to fight against Ukraine, they are fair game,” Kirby said. “They are fair targets, and the Ukrainian military will defend themselves against North Korean soldiers the same way they’re defending themselves against Russian soldiers.”
North Korea, known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, is a close ally of Russia. The two nations reaffirmed and expanded their defensive alliance earlier this year during a state visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ukrainian and South Korean intelligence agencies have for weeks raised alarm about the movement of the Korean People’s Army troops from North Korean ports to the Russian city of Vladivostok. The transportation of soldiers via ship has been captured on satellite images.
Putin was asked about the satellite images of North Korean troops in Russia during the BRICS summit, which was held this week.
“Images are a serious thing. If there are images, then they reflect something,” Putin said.
North Korean officials have been opaque on the nature and extent of their military cooperation with Russia.
The nation’s representatives to the United Nations previously called accusations of troop deployment into Russia a “groundless rumor.”
Vice Foreign Minister Kim Jong-gyu, who oversees the nation’s Russian affairs, neither confirmed nor denied the accusations — but defended the legality of such military cooperation if it is happening.
“If there is such a thing that the world media is talking about, I think it will be an act conforming with the regulations of international law,” he added.
He added, “There will evidently exist forces which want to describe it as illegal one, I think.”
If North Korea enters the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a belligerent, it will be the nation’s first engagement in a military conflict since 1986.
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North Korea spends almost a quarter of its entire GDP on its military, the fourth-largest in the world, with over 1.2 personnel, according to the Council on Foreign Affairs.
North Korea’s entry into combat with Ukrainian soldiers would be the first chance in decades for world governments to observe the operational competency of its long-inactive ground soldiers.
